Historical populations of Europe : changing proportions

[Maciamo]

It is amazing to see how regional populations fluctuate over time. For those who look at history as if modern population proportions were representative of historical proportions, think again.

Everybody knows that the population of the USA or other countries built on immigration soared over the last 100 or 200 years. The US population rose much faster than the world population, passing from only 5 million in 1800 to 23 million in 1850 to 76 million in 1900 to 151 million in 1950 to 281 million in 2000. In other words, the US population has been multiplied by 56 in these 200 years, as opposed to 6 for the world population (from 1 to 6 billion).

In Europe, the overall population has also increased a lot since the 19th century, from 200 million to 730 million (Russia included). But some regions have had much more dramatic increases than others. In fact, some parts of Europe have now less inhabitants than they did 150 years ago. One example is Ireland.

Ireland & Britain

Ireland's population peaked around 1841, when it reached 8.2 million inhabitants (for the whole island). The Republic of Ireland now counts 4.3 million people, and Northern Ireland 1.7 million. That's 6 million, 25% less than 165 years ago !

In comparison, the population of Scotland has doubled in the same period, and that of England has more than tripled. The main reasons for this population decrease in Ireland is massive emigration. According to Wikipedia, there are now 80 million people of Irish descent worldwide, among whom 45 million in the USA. This is not representative of the number of immigrants, as many (if not most) people claiming Irish descent are only partially Irish, sometimes with only one out of four grand-parents with Irish ancestry. The true number of Irish-born emigrants is estimated to be only 1.2 million. But this figure does not take into account the 1 million Irish living in England.

Benelux

Another interesting case is that of the Benelux. Nowadays, the Netherlands is the biggest country, with some 17 million citizens, for only 10 million Belgians and half a million Luxemburgers.

Nevertheless, in 1816, following the collapse of Napoleon's empire, Belgium was twice more populated than the Netherlands (4.2 million against 2 million). This is ironic considering that Belgium had just been annexed to the Netherlands by the Congress of Vienna, forming the Holland-based United Kingdom of the Netherlands. The union only lasted 15 years as Belgians resented the bias of the new government in favour of the Dutch citizens.

It was only in the 1930's that the population of Belgium and the Netherlands reached the same level, around 8 million each. In the last 75 years, the population of Belgium increased by a normal 25%. The Dutch were more prolific, doubling their numbers in only 2 or 3 generations.

The situation in the Low Countries contrast with Scandinavia, where the proportions between Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Finland have been fairly stable for many centuries. The Nordic growth rate in the 20th century has been similar to that of Belgium. One can wonder how or why the Dutch growth rate was so spectacular in the 1900's.

Comparing the big countries

Until the middle of the 19th century, France had always been the most populous region of Western Europe since ancient times. 2,000 years ago, Gaul already had 8 million inhabitants, against about 6 million in Italy, 4 million in Germany and under 1 million in the British Isles.

In Medieval times, the population of France had peaked to an unprecedented 20 million in the first half of the 14th century. The plague and other epidemics reduced the population to 15 million around 1500. The population kept fluctuating up and down around 18 to 22 million until the early 18th century, then soared to over 25 million from the 1770's and 30 million in 1820.

From the 14th to the early 18th century, the Italian population remained around 12 million. In Germany it oscillated between 10 and 15 million, and in Spain between 6 and 9 million.

England and Wales had some 3 million inhabitants around 1300, which rose to 4 or 5 million in the late 1300's. The Black Death annihilated about half of the population. In the 15th century, it had dropped to 2 million, 8 times less than in France. The population grew back to 5 million by 1700, and to 9 million in 1800. At the dawn of the 19th century, the United Kingdom with Scotland and Ireland, had a population of 16 million, almost like Italy (17 million), but still lower than France (27 million) or Germany (25 million).

The German population overtook France's around 1850, when both countries had a population of approximately 35 million. At the time, there were 27 million Britons, 25 million Italians and 15 million Spaniards.

In 1910, a few years before the First World War, there were 65 million Germans, 39.5 million French, 34.5 million Italians and 20 million Spaniards. The Austro-Hungarian Empire had 49.5 million inhabitants and the United Kingdom 45 million.

In 1946, in the aftermath of WWII, the population of Germany was the same as 36 years earlier at 65 million. The number of Spaniards had almost doubled, to 27 million. France had reached 40 million inhabitants, while the UK had stagnated around 45 million, partly due to emigration to the colonies.

Italy had for the first time overtaken France with 45 million citizens on a land hardly more than half the size of France. This would trigger a massive wave of Italian emigration, notably to South America, Australia, France and Belgium.

[Maciamo]

Selected populations in 1840 :

1) Russia : 62.4 million
2) Austria-Hungary : 34.9 million
3) France : 34 million
4) Germany : 32.5 million
5) Italy : 22 million
6) England + Wales : 16 million
7) Spain : 14 million
8) Ireland : 8.2 million
9) Belgium : 4.1 million
10) Sweden : 3.1 million
11) Netherlands : 2.9 million
12) Scotland : 2.5 million
13) Finland : 1.5 million
14) Denmark : 1.3 million
15) Norway : 1.2 million
16) Greece : 0.9 million

Selected populations in 1900 :

1) Russia : 132.9 million
2) Austria-Hungary : 45.2 million
3) Germany : 56.4 million
4) France : 38.9 million
5) England + Wales : 32.5 million
6) Italy : 32.4 million
7) Spain : 18.5 million
8) Belgium : 6.7 million
9) Netherlands : 5.2 million
10) Sweden : 5.1 million
11) Ireland : 4.5 million
12) Scotland : 4.4 million
13) Finland : 2.6 million
14) Greece : 2.5 million
15) Denmark : 2.4 million
16) Norway : 2.2 million

Selected populations in 2008 :

1) Russia : 142.2 million
2) Germany : 83.2 million
3) France : 59.8 million
4) Italy : 58.7 million
5) England + Wales : 53.8 million
6) Spain : 45 million
7) Austria-Hungary* : 44 million
8) Netherlands : 16.3 million
9) Greece : 10.6 million
10) Belgium : 10.3 million
11) Sweden : 9 million
12) Ireland : 6 million
13) Denmark : 5.4 million
14) Finland : 5.2 million
15) Scotland : 5.1 million
16) Norway : 4.5 million

* + Czechoslovakia, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina.

[Starship]

In 1845 the potato famine struck Ireland and lasted 5-6 years killing 1 million people and forcing a further 1 million to emigrate, this pattern of emigration continued up to and including the 1980's.

Euro-stat is predicting by 2060 Ireland will have doubled in population size, other countries to increase will be Britain, Sweden and the US. Most of this increase will come from migration, and in fact Britain will become the most populous country in Europe, Germany is forecast to decrease.

[Derek Knatchbull]

"Selected populations in 2008 : 5) England + Wales : 53.8 million "

What's happened to the other British populations of Scotland and Northern Ireland! Why has that been done? Why not take away the population of Flanders, Alsace and Lorraine and Brittany for example when calculating France's population. Anyway, wonder if the population figures for France include it's oversea's posessions or not?

PS anyone confirm that the French government actively seeks to increase it's population by handing out money to encourage it's citizen's to have kids. Saw so many relatively old couples with children in France. Social engineering can be a bit weird sometimes.

[Maciamo]

"Selected populations in 2008 : 5) England + Wales : 53.8 million "

What's happened to the other British populations of Scotland and Northern Ireland! Why has that been done? Why not take away the population of Flanders, Alsace and Lorraine and Brittany for example when calculating France's population. Anyway, wonder if the population figures for France include it's oversea's posessions or not?

I am surprised that this question comes from an Englishman (apparently), who chose the flag of England rather than the UK on this forum.

The United Kingdom is a recent country. England and Wales have only been unified to Scotland since 1707, and to Ireland since 1800. Because of the federal nature of the UK, statistics have remained to this day mostly separated between Northern Ireland, Scotland, and the entity of England & Wales (because they have been basically the same country since Norman times).

I could have made the total for the UK in the statistics, but I found it interesting to see how the population of England and Wales more than tripled since 1840, while that of Scotland only doubled.

[^ lynx ^]

Interesting info. My country was like a desert in the 19th century.