| Location | Population (2011) | Papers | Pages |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 53,012,456 | 480 | 14248043 |
| Scotland | 5,295,000 | 93 | 2434446 |
| Wales | 3,063,456 | 36 | 381447 |
| Ireland & Nrn Ireland | 6,451,863 | 144 | 2647473 |
However, on a population weighted basis BNA coverage of England and Wales lags that of Ireland and Scotland. For every 100 people in the population there are 46 pages available for Scotland, 41 for Ireland (combined), 27 for England and 12 for Wales.
The low coverage for Wales is likely because the National Library of Wales has done such a good job digitizing their newspapers and making them available free at http://newspapers.library.wales/. Add the 1.1 million pages digitized at that site and coverage per capita is on a par with Scotland.
Which leaves England lagging. I wonder why?
It could have something to do with copyright issues in addition to the sheer number of local papers. Last week BNA held a webinar about their collections & explained how papers arrive on the site. I belive the webianr is available via YouTube however I do not have a link. Tomorrow evening 23rd May, a further Q & A session about BNA will be taking place during Ancestryhour, which starts at 7 p.m. British Summer Time. Follow the hashtag #ancestryhour
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