The region of present-day China has historically been the most populous region in the world; however, its population development has fluctuated throughout history. In 2022, China was overtaken as the most populous country in the world, and current projections suggest its population is heading for a rapid decline in the coming decades. Transitions of power lead to mortality The source suggests that conflict, and the diseases brought with it, were the major obstacles to population growth throughout most of the Common Era, particularly during transitions of power between various dynasties and rulers. It estimates that the total population fell by approximately 30 million people during the 14th century due to the impact of Mongol invasions, which inflicted heavy losses on the northern population through conflict, enslavement, food instability, and the introduction of bubonic plague. Between 1850 and 1870, the total population fell once more, by more than 50 million people, through further conflict, famine and disease; the most notable of these was the Taiping Rebellion, although the Miao an Panthay Rebellions, and the Dungan Revolt, also had large death tolls. The third plague pandemic also originated in Yunnan in 1855, which killed approximately two million people in China. 20th and 21st centuries There were additional conflicts at the turn of the 20th century, which had significant geopolitical consequences for China, but did not result in the same high levels of mortality seen previously. It was not until the overlapping Chinese Civil War (1927-1949) and Second World War (1937-1945) where the death tolls reached approximately 10 and 20 million respectively. Additionally, as China attempted to industrialize during the Great Leap Forward (1958-1962), economic and agricultural mismanagement resulted in the deaths of tens of millions (possibly as many as 55 million) in less than four years, during the Great Chinese Famine. This mortality is not observable on the given dataset, due to the rapidity of China's demographic transition over the entire period; this saw improvements in healthcare, sanitation, and infrastructure result in sweeping changes across the population. The early 2020s marked some significant milestones in China's demographics, where it was overtaken by India as the world's most populous country, and its population also went into decline. Current projections suggest that China is heading for a "demographic disaster", as its rapidly aging population is placing significant burdens on China's economy, government, and society. In stark contrast to the restrictive "one-child policy" of the past, the government has introduced a series of pro-fertility incentives for couples to have larger families, although the impact of these policies are yet to materialize. If these current projections come true, then China's population may be around half its current size by the end of the century.

Included are data on the Portuguese urban centers with a resident population above 5000 inhabitants. The dataset can be used as a demographic criterium to analyse the Portuguese urban system, accepting the administrative boundaries that underlie the official statistics. A detailed check is made of small administrative units, called 'freguesias' for a considerably large number of communities. This is in order to stabilise their frontiers or to control their alterations throughout the period, according to meaningful criteria. This dataset is one of the results of the project EUROCIT which collects data on cities and urbanisation from several European countries.

“In the context of general urban research and also in historical investigations problems of housing provision and housing policies in the period of advanced industrialization play an important role. Those questions are most of the times related with the consequences of industrialization and urbanization because besides the necessary infrastructure services like the expansion of public transport, canalization, water and energy provision and facilities for health care, problems related to an adequate housing provision were more and more emphasized because the private housing economy was not able to deal with the high demand especially for small apartments. Especially the shortage of small apartments caused that questions and problems related to housing were considered as system-critically more than other social-political areas.” (Steitz, a. cit., p. 393f). Contemporary reformers and those who discussed questions related to housing formulated a high number of local political measures. Based on those discussions the author formulates his research question: “Which local political measures were undertaken by the communities of the German Empire between 1875 and 1914 under which circumstances? Some historical studies in this subject are already investigated local housing policies especially regarding the housing construction for workers in the entire German Empire. The local conditions and the measures undertaken by the different communities varied significantly. Therefore the present study tends to analyze the extent of communal housing policies looking at the case study of Frankfurt am Main because this city played an important role in this subject area” (Steitz, a. a. O., p. 397). Data tables in HISTAT: A.01 Per capita tax burden in Frankfurt am Main, Berlin and Prussian communities with more than 10.000 inhabitants, in Mark (1890-1913) A.02 Development of population on the basis of the 1910 incorporated territory including Frankfurt (1871-1910) A.03 Relative per capita tax burden in Frankfurt am Main (1890-1905) A.04 Public debt of Frankfurt am Main (1887-1907) A.05 Proportion of expenditure for infrastructure spending on total expenditure and revenues, as well as on the direct tax burden, Frankfurt am Main (1872-1898) A.06 Share of taxes and operating surplus of the total ordinary revenues of the budget of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1904-1913) A.07 Overview of surpluses and grants from the regular budget of the city of Frankfurt am Main (1898-1913) A.08a Expenditures of Frankfurt am Main (1872-1881) A.08b Expenditures of Frankfurt am Main (1881-1897) A.08c Expenditures of the regular household of Frankfurt am Main (1898-1905) A.08d Expenditures for construction in the extraordinary budget of Frankfurt am Main (1898-1910) A.09 Ratio of urban mortgage sum of leaseholder on urban ground in Frankfurt am Main (1902-1905) A.10 Urban construction of small apartments in Frankfurt am Main (1904-1913) A.11Buildings and apartments constructed by charitable construction and housing associations (1868-1914) A.12 Proportion of newly built apartments on the total number of new apartments in Frankfurt am Main (1884-1914) A.13 Share of charitably built apartments on the total number of available and occupied apartments in Frankfurt am Main (1871-1910)