By 1800, London had grown to be the largest city in Western Europe with just under one million inhabitants. Paris was now the second largest city, with over half a million people, and Naples was the third largest city with 450 thousand people. The only other cities with over two hundred thousand inhabitants at this time were Vienna, Amsterdam and Dublin. Another noticeable development is the inclusion of many more northern cities from a wider variety of countries. The dominance of cities from France and Mediterranean countries was no longer the case, and the dispersal of European populations in 1800 was much closer to how it is today, more than two centuries later.

Between 1500 and 1800, London grew to be the largest city in Western Europe, with its population growing almost 22 times larger in this period. London would eventually overtake Constantinople as Europe's largest in the 1700s, before becoming the largest city in the world (ahead of Beijing) in the early-1800s.

The most populous cities in this period were the capitals of European empires, with Paris, Amsterdam, and Vienna growing to become the largest cities, alongside the likes of Lisbon and Madrid in Iberia, and Naples or Venice in Italy. Many of northwestern Europe's largest cities in 1500 would eventually be overtaken by others not shown here, such as the port cities of Hamburg, Marseilles or Rotterdam, or more industrial cities such as Berlin, Birmingham, and Munich.

Throughout the early modern period, the largest city in Italy was Naples. The middle ages saw many metropolitan areas along the Mediterranean grow to become the largest in Europe, as they developed into meeting ports for merchants travelling between the three continents. Italy, throughout this time, was not a unified country, but rather a collection of smaller states that had many cultural similarities, and political control of these cities regularly shifted over the given period. Across this time, the population of each city generally grew between each century, but a series of plague outbreaks in the 1600s devastated the populations of Italy's metropolitan areas, which can be observed here. Naples At the beginning of the 1500s, the Kingdom of Naples was taken under the control of the Spanish crown, where its capital grew to become the largest city in the newly-expanding Spanish Empire. Prosperity then grew in the 16th and 17th centuries, before the city's international importance declined in the 18th century. There is also a noticeable dip in Naples' population size between 1600 and 1700, due to an outbreak of plague in 1656 that almost halved the population. Today, Naples is just the third largest city in Italy, behind Rome and Milan. Rome Over 2,000 years ago, Rome became the first city in the world to have a population of more than one million people, and in 2021, it was Italy's largest city with a population of 2.8 million; however it did go through a period of great decline in the middle ages. After the Fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476CE, Rome's population dropped rapidly, below 100,000 inhabitants in 500CE. 1,000 years later, Rome was an important city in Europe as it was the seat of the Catholic Church, and it had a powerful banking sector, but its population was just 55,000 people as it did not have the same appeal for merchants or migrants held by the other port cities. A series of reforms by the Papacy in the late-1500s then saw significant improvements to infrastructure, housing, and sanitation, and living standards rose greatly. Over the following centuries, the Papacy consolidated its power in the center of the Italian peninsula, which brought stability to the region, and the city of Rome became a cultural center. Across this period, Rome's population grew almost three times larger, which was the highest level of growth of these cities.

This collection contains five modified data sets with mortality, population, and other demographic information for five American cities (Baltimore, Maryland; Boston, Massachusetts; New Orleans, Louisiana; New York City (Manhattan only), New York; and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) from the early 19th century to the early 20th century. Mortality was represented by an annual crude death rate (deaths per 1000 population per year). The population was linearly interpolated from U.S. Census data and state census data (for Boston and New York City). All data sets include variables for year, total deaths, census populations, estimated annual linearly interpolated populations, and crude death rate. The Baltimore data set (DS0001) also provides birth and death rate variables based on race and slave status demographics, as well as a variable for stillbirths. The Philadelphia data set (DS0005) also includes variables for total births, total infant deaths, crude birth rate, and infant deaths per 1,000 live births.

Based on a collection of estimates, over the past 9,000 years, there have been at least 48 cities with a claim to the title of "the world's most populous city". While these can be found on four separate continents, the majority are concentrated in three major regions; 12 of these cities were in present-day Iraq or Syria (then-Mesopotamia), nine were in China, and seven in Egypt. Additionally, many of these cities were found across the Mediterranean, not only during Antiquity (Alexandria, Carthage, and Rome), but also during the Middle Ages (Constantinople, Cordova, and Fez), highlighting the economic significance of this region throughout history.

Many of the older entries in this list are now just archeological sites, although several have been continuously inhabited for millennia, such as Luoyang and Xi'an in China, which both have populations of several million in 2022. It may also be possible that the first entry, Jericho, is the world's oldest, continuously inhabited settlement, although this is a topic of debate.

The Historical Urban Population, 3700 BC - AD 2000, originally developed by the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies, is the first spatially explicit global data set containing location and size of urban populations over the last 6,000 years. The data set was created by digitizing, transcribing, and geocoding historical, archaeological, and census-based urban population data. Each data point consists of a city name, latitude, longitude, year, population, and a reliability ranking to assess the geographic uncertainty of each data point. Despite spatial and temporal gaps, no other geocoded data set at this resolution exists. It can therefore be used to investigate long-term historical urbanization trends and patterns, evaluate the current era of urbanization, and build a richer record of urban population through history.

Population density and size are the most commonly used metrics for defining modern cities and urbanism. Yet unlike size, density has been overlooked in systematic analyses of the historical development of the U.S. urban system. Deploying large-scale geocoded census microdata on forty major cities in 1880, this article contributes to a systematic understanding of density in late-nineteenth-century U.S. urbanism. Methodologically, we make the case for a block-level, population-weighted density measure that reflects the experience of density and is transferable to other urban contexts. Thematically, we use this measure to compare density across cities, outlining regionally distinct patterns in density and identifying the built environment as a contributing factor to high- versus low-density urban development, and to explore density within cities across population subgroups, finding that immigrants, racial minorities, and lower class residents experienced higher densities at a time when high density increased exposure to health risks. Additionally, throughout the article we draw out preliminary findings worthy of future research about density conditions for particular cities, places, and demographic subgroups.

This data collection contains individual-level and family-level information collected from the 1870 and 1880 manuscript schedules of the United States Population Census for seven Southern cities: Charleston, South Carolina, Richmond, Virginia, Atlanta, Georgia, Savannah, Georgia, Mobile, Alabama, Norfolk, Virginia, and New Orleans, Louisiana. Approximately 5,000 individuals and 1,500 families are represented for each of the two census years studied. Part 1 contains data for 1870, and Part 2 contains data for 1880. The data gathered for sampled individuals include age, sex, race, marital status, presence of health defect, school attendance, ability to read, ability to write, occupational classification (female and male), nationality, and real and personal wealth (for 1870 only). Both datasets include a variable that uniquely identifies each family in the sample to facilitate the aggregation of the data for the creation of family-level data for each member, e.g., sex, race, age, marital status, school attendance, member status in the family, occupation, health, unemployment, city of residence, nationality and parents' nationality, and real and personal wealth.

How were cities distributed globally in the past? How many people lived in these cities? How did cities influence their local and regional environments? This month's map seeks to answer these questions by illustrating the worlds population growth within cities over a span of 6,000 years.According to the map authors, By 2030, 75 percent of of the world's population is expected to be living in cities. Today, about 54 percent of us do. In 1960, only 34 percent of the world lived in cities.The dots on the map represent the approximate location and size of urban populations worldwide.An animated version showing the development of cities over time is available at https://mtc.maps.arcgis.com/apps/Cascade/index.html?appid=fb8666425e0c44a2a77c5bb84ceec6efSource: Metrocosm, June 2016 - Watch as the world’s cities appear one-by-one over 6,000 years

These charts shows the world trend in urban populations, people living in cities, from the year 1800 to 2100.

Historical population counts for municipalities in the State of Vermont (1791-2020) compiled by the Vermont Historical Society (years 1791-2010) then appended with 2020 Census counts.An attempt was made to convert counts to current town names to allow for analyses of population change of an area over time. The Historical Society notes, “For example, the census numbers from Kellyvale are counted as the town of Lowell because the name was changed in 1831. Cabot is included in Washington County records, even though it was in Caledonia County through the 1850 census.” This does create some issues where there are changes in geography such as boundary changes, annexations, and new incorporations (such as Rutland City splitting off from Rutland Town).The Historical Society collected the data from a variety of sources.The 1791-2010 data was extracted from PDF’s by VCGI Open Data Fellow Kendal Fortney in 2017.

It is estimated that the cities of Cordova (modern-day Córdoba) and Palermo were the largest cities in Europe in 1050, and had between fifteen and twenty times the population of most other entries in this graph, Despite this the cities of Cordova (the capital city of the Umayyad caliphate, who controlled much of the Iberian peninsula from the seventh to eleventh centuries), and Palermo (another Arab-controlled capital in Southern Europe) were still the only cities in Western Europe with a population over one hundred thousand people, closely followed by Seville. It is also noteworthy to point out that the five largest cities on this list were importing trading cities, in modern day Spain or Italy, although the largest cities become more northern and western European in later lists (1200, 1330, 1500, 1650 and 1800). In 1050, todays largest Western European cities, London and Paris, had just twenty-five and twenty thousand inhabitants respectively.

The period of European history (and much of world history) between 500 and 1500 is today known as the 'Dark Ages'. Although the term 'Dark Ages' was originally applied to the lack of literature and arts, it has since been applied to the lack or scarcity of recorded information from this time. Because of these limitations, much information about this time is still being debated today.

The Italian city of Venice was one of the largest cities in medieval and Renaissance era Europe. It was the center of the Republic of Venice, a maritime empire in the Mediterranean, and had one of Europe's largest ports for exotic goods (particularly from Asia), or luxury goods such as glassware. Impact of plague While its population was relatively small by modern standards, it is believed that Venice was among the five most populous cities in Western Europe in the given years between 1050 and 1650. The city's population did fluctuate over time due to devastating pandemics, and it is believed that Venice was one of the main points of entry for the Black Death in Europe. Venice was one of the hardest-hit cities during the Black Death; estimates fluctuate greatly across sources, but it is believed that the city lost around 40 percent of its population during the initial outbreak in the 1340s. Decline Furthermore, Venice lost roughly a third of its population during further plague pandemics (both introduced via war) in the 1570s and 1630s. Because of this, the population was kept fairly consistent across the given years between 1600 and 1800. The 18th century also saw the decline of the Venetian Empire, as other states gained power and influence in the Mediterranean. Venice also lost its importance as the entry point of exotic goods into Europe, as other European powers had already established their own maritime empires and trade routes across the globe. Eventually, the crumbling Venetian Empire fell to Napoleon in 1796, and its overseas territories were gradually taken by or split among various other powers. While the empire fell, the city itself continued to be a center for art and culture in Europe, and it has maintained this status until today. In 2021, Venice had a population of more than 250,000 people.

Alcobendas City Council. Relative population growth since 2003. Data obtained from the Municipal Padrón of Alcobendas

In 1500, the largest city was Paris, with an estimated 225 thousand inhabitants, almost double the population of the second-largest city, Naples. As in 1330, Venice and Milan remain the third and fourth largest cities in Western Europe, however Genoa's population almost halved from 1330 until 1500, as it was struck heavily by the bubonic plague in the mid-1300s. In lists prior to this, the largest cities were generally in Spain and Italy, however, as time progressed, the largest populations could be found more often in Italy and France. The year 1500 is around the beginning of what we now consider modern history, a time that saw the birth of many European empires and inter-continental globalization.

Alcobendas City Council. Official population data registered since 1998. Total figures and distribution by age group and sex.
Data for 1 January of each year indicated.

This study contains an assortment of data files relating to the electoral and demographic history of New York State. Part 1, Mortality Statistics of the Seventh Census, 1850: Place of Birth for United States Cities, contains counts of persons by place of birth for United States cities as reported in the 1850 United States Census. Place of birth is coded for states and for selected foreign countries, and percentages are also included. Part 2, Selected Tables of New York State and United States Censuses of 1835-1875: New York State Counties, contains data from the New York State Censuses of 1835, 1845, 1855, 1865, and 1875, and includes data from the United States Censuses of 1840 and 1850. The bulk of the tables concern church and synagogue membership. The tables for 1835 and 1845 include counts of persons by sex, legal male voters, alien males, not taxed Colored, taxed Colored, and taxed Colored can vote. The 1840 tables include total population, employment by industry, and military pensioners. The 1855 tables provide counts of persons by place of birth. Part 3, New York State Negro Suffrage Referenda Returns, 1846, 1860, and 1869, by Election District, contains returns for 28 election districts on the issue of Negro suffrage, with information on number of votes for, against, and total votes. Also provided are percentages of votes for and against Negro suffrage. Part 4, New York State Liquor License Referendum Returns, 1846, Town Level, contains returns from the Liquor License Referendum held in May 1846. For each town the file provides total number of votes cast, votes for, votes against, and percentage of votes for and against. The source of the data are New York State Assembly Documents, 70 Session, 1847, Document 40. Part 5, New York State Censuses of 1845, 1855, 1865, and 1875: Counts of Churches and Church Membership by Denomination, contains counts of churches, total value of church property, church seating capacity, usual number of persons attending church, and number of church members from the New York State Censuses of 1845, 1855, 1865, and 1875. Counts are by denomination at the state summary level. Part 6, New York State Election Returns, Censuses, and Religious Censuses: Merged Tables, 1830-1875, Town Level, presents town-level data for the elections of 1830, 1834, 1838, 1840, and 1842. The file also includes various summary statistics from the New York State Censuses of 1835, 1845, 1855, and 1865 with limited data from the 1840 United States Census. The data for 1835 and 1845 include male eligible voters, aliens not naturalized, non-white persons not taxed, and non-white persons taxed. The data for 1840 include population, employment by industry, and military service pensioners. The data for 1845 cover total population and number of males, place of birth, and churches. The data for 1855 and 1865 provide counts of persons by place of birth, number of dwellings, total value of dwellings, counts of persons by race and sex, number of voters by native and foreign born, and number of families. The data for 1865 also include counts of Colored not taxed and data for churches and synagogues such as number, value, seating capacity, and attendance. The data for 1875 include population, native and foreign born, counts of persons by race, by place of birth, by native, by naturalized citizens, and by alien males aged 21 and over. Part 7, New York State Election Returns, Censuses, and Religious Censuses: Merged Tables, 1844-1865, Town Level, contains town-level data for the state of New York for the elections of 1844 and 1860. It also contains data for 1850 such as counts of persons by sex and race. Data for 1855 includes counts of churches, value of churches and real estate, seating capacity, and church membership. Data for 1860 include date church was founded and source of that information. Also provided are total population counts for the years 1790, 1800, 1814, 1820, 1825, 1830, 1835, 1845, 1856, 1850, 1855, 1860, and 1865. (ICPSR 3/16/2015)

Total population figures for the City of Brussels (various official sources, see table)Data are derived from the National Register. The official population figures do not take into account the waiting register of asylum seekers, which comprises people with an ongoing asylum application (Law of 24 May 1994 establishing a waiting register for foreigners who declare themselves refugees or who ask to be recognised as refugees). However, the figures published by Eurostat contain an estimate of people entered in the waiting register.

A limited number of registrations in the National Register are late or incorrect. Therefore, the observed population growth (difference between the population on 1 January 2023 and 1 January 2022) is not 100% in line with the balance obtained based on births, deaths and migrations. The statistical adjustment this year amounts to -208 units at Belgian level. This is an indication that the data are of high quality.

Census of the Eastern population since the 18th century, this list specifies: * Census year * The total number of inhabitants recorded in the municipality The census records of the Eastern population existed from 1936 to 1975 and are kept by the Archives. They have all been digitised, but only the 1936 census is available online, the population censuses from 1946 to 1975 can be consulted in the reading room. Consult the 1936 Census Before the French Revolution, the population was evaluated by fire (i.e. by house) or parish; it was a simple population count. In 1800, Lucien Bonaparte, Minister of the Interior, organised the foundations of the modern census with the establishment of the first general enumeration of the population. Systematic nominative lists by municipality were put in place in 1836. These censuses are then held every 5 years (years in 1 and 6) but are disturbed in times of war: thus the 1871 was established in 1872 and those of 1916 and 1941 were not realised. In the second half of the 20th century, periodicity is no longer as regular, censuses in the form of nominative lists took place in 1946, 1954, 1962, 1968 and 1975. From the 1954 census, nominative lists became optional. In 1982, the nominative list was deleted at the request of the National Commission for Informatics and Freedoms (CNIL), the censuses were then compiled in the form of statistical tables.

The lack of a recent summarizing description of population density in Germany that contains detailed information of pre-industrial times motivated the author of this study to undertake an analysis of population history of Northern Germany between 1740 and 1840. The goal of the study is to analyze the development of population regarding different aspects of population history and historical demographics. The author tries to connect geographic data with family data and then he relates it with economic, political and cultural development. The main part of the study ‘population dynamics’ gives an overview over demographic developments in a century characterized by demographic changes. Insights in the general changes in population size, the phases of Northern German population development and in relevant components for increases in population (e.g. decrease in mortality) are given. Finally the population determinants are developed, first in a concrete regional historic context of some areas (Marsch, nordwestliches Binnenland, Münsterland, Ostwestfalen, Ostelbien) and then more general external factors are included in the analysis. The generative structure of pre-industrial population, the industrial development, seasonal work and colonization are covered. There is an extra chapter on the development of urban population which includes the factors: urbanization, decrease in mortality, first signs of birth controls and migration. These regional considerations are opposed to an investigation of the general framework of demographical changes. In this context also grain prices and prevention from smallpox are taken into account.

Systematic of the data:

Sub-regions: 1. Holstein 2. The Hanseatic cities 3. Mecklenburg and Wester Pomerania
4. Prussia’s middle provinces
5. Core area of Lower Saxony 6. Weser-Ems-Area 7. Westphalia

Topics: 1. Births (excl. still births) 2. Deaths (incl. still births) 3. Still births 4. Marriages 5. Illegitimate births
6. Infant and child mortality 7. Population status

Mortality tables: A. Holstein (Propsteien) 1775/98, 1801/05 B. East Friesland 1775/98, 1835/39 C. County of Mark und märkische Kreise 1775/98, 1820/34 D. Kurmark 1775/98, 1835/39

Register of data tables: - Probability of death decennially in the German Reich 1881/90 - Handed down census results from Braunschweig-Lüneburg - Advances is historical tables of Westphalia
- Migration balances of Prussian government districts 1816-1840 - Population and households in Hamburg 1764-1824 - Population in Northern Germany and Germany - Approximated values for net migration 1751-1840 - Age specific decline in mortality 1775/98-1835/39 - Decline in child mortality - Fertility and marriage behavior by family reconstruction - Proportion of singles by department s and arrodissements 1811 - Average age at birth ca. 1740-ca.1840 - Regression analysis on deaths (excl. children) – marriages - Regional differences in population increases - Population density and mortality 1780-1799 - Population balances of Marschgebiete und der Fehmarn Island - Population balances of North Western Germany (without Küstenmarsch) - Budget structures of the parish Vreden 1749 - Population balances of areas with high industry densities - Budget structures of County of Mark 1798 - Budget structures in Minden-Ravensburg and Tecklenburg 1798 - Natality, mortality and cottage industry in Ravensberg 1788-1798 - North Western German areas with low birth rates
- Colonists resident in Prussia 1740-1786 - Social structure of rural population 1750 – 1790/98 - Social structure of rural population in Halberstädter - Urban population (legal definition of city) - Mortality due to tuberculosis in rural and urban areas - Average mortality rates in large cities
- Infant mortality and decline in mortality in Berlin S - Rural and urban migration balances 1741/1778-1840 - Birth rates - Cumulative elasticity of population movement - Average marriage rates in Hannover in comparison - Mortality due to smallpox - Share of infant and child mortality due to smallpox -Magnitude of the decrease in child mortality - Reduction of infant mortality - Regional differences in the decline in infant mortality

The data can be requested via order form or by personal request via email or telephone. PDF-form and contact data: http://www.gesis.org/dienstleistungen/daten/daten-historische-sozialf/querschnittsdaten/