At the beginning of the Common Era, over three quarters of Western Europe's population lived in the Mediterranean regions that make up present-day France, Greece, Italy, Spain, and Portugal. At this time, all of these areas were under the control of the Roman Empire, and remained so until the fifth century. The Mediterranean region was the center of trade between Europe, Asia, and Africa throughout most of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, and many of the most populous cities in the Europe were located in present-day Italy or Spain during this time. Due to this fact, these metropolitan areas were some of the most severely-hit during pandemic outbreaks. The emergence of Europe's maritime empires during the 16th and 17th centuries, and later the economic growth of Germany, led to a shift in Western Europe's population distribution; yet, over half of the population was located in these Mediterranean countries until the 19th century.

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.

Population estimates for the Roman empire, by European region (thousands).

This database represents a collection of osteological and biochemical information from two Imperial-era skeletal collections (Casal Bertone and Castellaccio Europarco) from Rome. Data collection was accomplished between 2007-2009. In the database, you will find basic demographic information (age and sex), an inventory of each skeleton, measurements, skeletal pathology data, records of teeth examined and their pathological conditions, and results of all biochemical analyses undertaken to date (C, N, O, Sr, Pb isotopes; Pb and Sr concentration). No information on the archaeological context of the skeletons (e.g., provenience, grave goods, etc.) is included in this database, as that information is the purview of the Archaeological Superintendency of Rome. I'm suggesting a CC BY-NC-SA license for these data -- that is, feel free to use the data as you see fit for your academic publications; I just ask that you credit me appropriately. For a synthesis of data from different sites, citation is fine. If you're interested in analyzing unpublished data, like dental pathology, I would appreciate co-authorship. To find my own analyses and interpretations, or to get additional context, please see the relevant publications at the link below. If you don't have access to them, I will gladly send you a copy of anything published or under review. I have photographs of skeletons and pathologies that you can request if needed.

Don't hesitate to contact me for more information, to ask about research that's been done with these collections, or to suggest a paper that we could collaborate on - killgrove @ uwf . edu.

Publications from these data: [Pathology Data] Killgrove, K. In press. Imperialism and physiological stress in Rome (1st-3rd centuries AD). In: Bioarchaeology of Contact, Colonialism, and Imperialism, H. Klaus and M. Murphy, eds. University Press of Florida. [Stature Data] Killgrove, K. In press. Using skeletal remains as a proxy for Roman health: the potential and problems with palaeopathology, biochemistry, and postcranial morphology. In: Diet and Nutrition in the Roman World, C. Holleran and P. Erdkamp, eds. Routledge. [Sr and O Data]Killgrove, K. and J. Montgomery. 2016. All Roads Lead to Rome: Exploring Human Migration to the Eternal City through Biochemistry of Skeletons from Two Imperial-Era Cemeteries (1st-3rd c AD). PLOS One 11(2): e0147585. DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0147585. Killgrove, K. 2013. Biohistory of the Roman Republic: the potential of isotope analysis of human skeletal remains. Post-Classical Archaeologies 3: 41-62. Killgrove, K. 2010. Identifying immigrants to Imperial Rome using strontium isotope analysis. In Roman Diasporas: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Diversity in the Roman Empire, H. Eckardt, ed. Journal of Roman Archaeology supplement 78, Chapter 9, pp. 157-174. Killgrove, K. 2010. Migration and Mobility in Imperial Rome. Ph.D. Dissertation, Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina. [Also includes relevant bibliography on the archaeological context of the cemeteries.] [C and N Data] Killgrove, K. and R.H. Tykot. 2013. Food for Rome: a stable isotope investigation of diet in the Imperial period (1st-3rd centuries AD). Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 32(1): 28-38. DOI: 10.1016/j.jaa.2012.08.002. [Pb Data] Montgomery, J., J. Evans, S. Chenery, V. Pashley, K. Killgrove. 2010. “Gleaming, white and deadly”: lead exposure and geographic origins in the Roman period. In Roman Diasporas: Archaeological Approaches to Mobility and Diversity in the Roman Empire, H. Eckardt, ed. Journal of Roman Archaeology supplement 78, Chapter 11, pp. 199-226. [Nonmetric Trait Data]

Killgrove, K. Submitted. Using biological distance techniques to investigate the heterogeneous population of Imperial Rome. Manuscript submitted for edited volume, The Archaeology of Circulation, Exchange, and Human Migration, D. Peterson and J. Dudgeon, eds.

Questions should be directed to me at killgrove@uwf.edu.

Rome is the most populous city in Italy. With 2.75 million inhabitants, the capital of the country put ahead Milan and Naples. Compared to the number of citizens in 2012, the resident population of Rome increased by over 140,000 individuals. Regional data Rome is located in the center of Italy in the Lazio region. Lazio is the second-largest region in terms of population size after Lombardy. In 2024, the region counts roughly 5.7 million inhabitants, whereas Lombardy has over ten million individuals. The third-largest region is Campania, with 5.6 million people. Naples, the major center of Campania, has around 910,000 inhabitants at the beginning of 2024. Nevertheless, this city was, back in the 19th century, one of the largest cities in Western Europe. Tourism in Rome The Eternal City is also the main tourist destination in Italy and was the eighth most-visited city in Europe. The largest groups of international visitors in Rome came from the United States of America, Japan, and the United Kingdom. Every year, more and more tourists also enjoy the best-known tourist attractions in Rome, like the Colosseum, the Roman Forum, and the Palatine Hill, which together recorded almost ten million visitors in 2022.

Among classical scholars there is a widespread assumption that there is no relationship between the sizes of communities and their epigraphic output. In this article, I offer a new model, which suggests two hypotheses for how inscriptions increase with population, depending on whether they can be regarded as a form of infrastructure or a measure of wealth or disposable income. I show that, despite the variation between sites, there is nonetheless a consistent relationship between the numbers of inscriptions and the estimated populations of sites. The numbers of inscriptions increase slower than the estimated populations of sites, however, suggesting that they acted as a form of information infrastructure. This has important implications for our understanding of the mechanisms for transmitting information in ancient contexts, suggesting several avenues for future research.

In 1800, the region of Germany was not a single, unified nation, but a collection of decentralized, independent states, bound together as part of the Holy Roman Empire. This empire was dissolved, however, in 1806, during the Revolutionary and Napoleonic eras in Europe, and the German Confederation was established in 1815. Napoleonic reforms led to the abolition of serfdom, extension of voting rights to property-owners, and an overall increase in living standards. The population grew throughout the remainder of the century, as improvements in sanitation and medicine (namely, mandatory vaccination policies) saw child mortality rates fall in later decades. As Germany industrialized and the economy grew, so too did the argument for nationhood; calls for pan-Germanism (the unification of all German-speaking lands) grew more popular among the lower classes in the mid-1800s, especially following the revolutions of 1948-49. In contrast, industrialization and poor harvests also saw high unemployment in rural regions, which led to waves of mass migration, particularly to the U.S.. In 1886, the Austro-Prussian War united northern Germany under a new Confederation, while the remaining German states (excluding Austria and Switzerland) joined following the Franco-Prussian War in 1871; this established the German Empire, under the Prussian leadership of Emperor Wilhelm I and Chancellor Otto von Bismarck. 1871 to 1945 - Unification to the Second World War The first decades of unification saw Germany rise to become one of Europe's strongest and most advanced nations, and challenge other world powers on an international scale, establishing colonies in Africa and the Pacific. These endeavors were cut short, however, when the Austro-Hungarian heir apparent was assassinated in Sarajevo; Germany promised a "blank check" of support for Austria's retaliation, who subsequently declared war on Serbia and set the First World War in motion. Viewed as the strongest of the Central Powers, Germany mobilized over 11 million men throughout the war, and its army fought in all theaters. As the war progressed, both the military and civilian populations grew increasingly weakened due to malnutrition, as Germany's resources became stretched. By the war's end in 1918, Germany suffered over 2 million civilian and military deaths due to conflict, and several hundred thousand more during the accompanying influenza pandemic. Mass displacement and the restructuring of Europe's borders through the Treaty of Versailles saw the population drop by several million more.

Reparations and economic mismanagement also financially crippled Germany and led to bitter indignation among many Germans in the interwar period; something that was exploited by Adolf Hitler on his rise to power. Reckless printing of money caused hyperinflation in 1923, when the currency became so worthless that basic items were priced at trillions of Marks; the introduction of the Rentenmark then stabilized the economy before the Great Depression of 1929 sent it back into dramatic decline. When Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933, the Nazi government disregarded the Treaty of Versailles' restrictions and Germany rose once more to become an emerging superpower. Hitler's desire for territorial expansion into eastern Europe and the creation of an ethnically-homogenous German empire then led to the invasion of Poland in 1939, which is considered the beginning of the Second World War in Europe. Again, almost every aspect of German life contributed to the war effort, and more than 13 million men were mobilized. After six years of war, and over seven million German deaths, the Axis powers were defeated and Germany was divided into four zones administered by France, the Soviet Union, the UK, and the U.S.. Mass displacement, shifting borders, and the relocation of peoples based on ethnicity also greatly affected the population during this time. 1945 to 2020 - Partition and Reunification In the late 1940s, cold war tensions led to two distinct states emerging in Germany; the Soviet-controlled east became the communist German Democratic Republic (DDR), and the three western zones merged to form the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. Additionally, Berlin was split in a similar fashion, although its location deep inside DDR territory created series of problems and opportunities for the those on either side. Life quickly changed depending on which side of the border one lived. Within a decade, rapid economic recovery saw West Germany become western Europe's strongest economy and a key international player. In the east, living standards were much lower, although unemployment was almost non-existent; internationally, East Germany was the strongest economy in the Eastern Bloc (after the USSR), though it eventually fell behind the West by the 1970s. The restriction of movement between the two states also led to labor shortages in t...

The relationship between the estimated populations and inhabited areas of a selection of sites in the Roman Empire (after Hanson and Ortman 2017: Table 5).

The Plague of Justinian was an outbreak of bubonic plague that ravaged the Mediterranean and its surrounding area, between 541 and 767CE. It was likely the first major outbreak of bubonic plague in Europe, and possibly the earliest pandemic to have been recorded reliably and with relative accuracy. Contemporary scholars described the symptoms and effects of the disease in detail, and these matched descriptions of the Black Death and Third Pandemic, leading most historians to believe that this was bubonic plague. It was also assumed that the plague originated in sub-Saharan Africa, before making its way along the Nile to Egypt, and then across the Mediterranean to Constantinople. In 2013, scientists were able to confirm that Justinian's Plague was in fact Yersinia pestis (the bacteria which causes bubonic plague), and recent theories suggest that the plague originated in the Eurasian Steppes, where the Black Death and Third Pandemic are also thought to have originated from, and that it was brought to Europe by the Hunnic Tribes of the sixth century. Plague of Justinian The pandemic itself takes its name from Emperor Justinian I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire (or Eastern Roman Empire) at the time of the outbreak, and who actually contracted the disease (although he survived). Reports suggest that Constantinople was the hardest hit city during the pandemic, and saw upwards of five thousand deaths per day during the most severe months. There are a multitude of sources with differing estimates for the plague's death toll, with most ranging between 25 and 100 million. Until recently, scholars assumed that the plague killed between one third and 40 percent of the world's population, with populations in infected regions declining by up to 25 percent in early years, and up to 60 percent over two centuries. The plague was felt strongest during the initial outbreak in Constantinople, however it remained in Europe for over two centuries, with the last reported cases in 767. Pre-2019 sources vary in their estimates, with some suggesting that up to half of the world's population died in the pandemic, while others state that it was just a quarter of the Mediterranean or European population; however most of them agree that the death toll was in the tens of millions. Historians have also argued about the plague's role in the fall of the Roman Empire, with opinions ranging from "fundamental" to "coincidental", although new evidence is more aligned with the latter theories. Challenging theories As with the recent studies which propose a different origin for the disease, one study conducted by researchers in Princeton and Jerusalem calls into question the accuracy of the death tolls estimated by historians in the 19th and 20th centuries. In 2019, L. Mordechai and M. Eisenberg published a series of papers suggesting that, although the plague devastated Constantinople, it did not have the same impact as the Black Death. The researchers argue that modern historians have taken a maximalist approach to the death tolls of the pandemic, and have applied the same models of distribution to Justinian's Plague as they believe occurred during the Black Death; however there is little evidence to support this. They examine the content and number of contemporary texts, as well archaeological, agricultural and genetic evidence which shows that the plague did spread across Europe, but did not seem to cause the same societal upheaval as the Black Death. It is likely that there will be further investigation into this outbreak in the following years, which may shed more light on the scale of this pandemic.

The Plague of Justinian was the first major bubonic plague pandemic recorded in Europe, and was the first pandemic to ever be described or documented with any relative reliability. The plague takes its name from Emperor Justinian I, who ruled the Byzantine Empire (Eastern Roman Empire) at the time of the outbreak. The Byzantine capital of Constantinople (also known then as Byzantium, and Istanbul today) was the hardest hit city during the pandemic, and where the majority of sources are from. Until recently, it was only assumed that the outbreak was bubonic plague, due to the symptoms described by contemporary historians, but scientists were able to confirm that it was in fact Yersinia pestis (the bacterium that causes plague) in 2013. Constantinople overwhelmed It is thought that the plague was brought to Constantinople by Egyptian grain merchants, although a recent theory suggests it was brought from the Eurasian Steppes (from where Yersinia pestis originates) to Europe by Hunnic tribes. While the exact origins of the plague remain unclear, it is estimated that up to 300,000 people died in Constantinople in the first year of the outbreak. Contemporary sources claim that there were approximately 5,000 deaths in the city every day at the height of the pandemic, even reaching highs of 10,000 on some days. Constantinople outbreak was unique A 2019 study, conducted by researchers from Jerusalem and Princeton raises some important questions about the scale of the outbreak across Europe. They dispute the claim by some modern historians that this pandemic killed up to half of the population of the Mediterranean (or that it was instrumental to the collapse of the Eastern Roman Empire), instead suggesting that the scale of the outbreak in Constantinople was unique to that city. They use a variety of literary, archeological, and scientific sources to show that the plague was unlikely to have reached this magnitude across other cities at the time, nor did it spread in the same way that the Black Death did six centuries later. While future studies are likely to provide further insight into these theories, it is important to remember this contrasting hypothesis when studying pre-2019 sources.

According to the evidence presented, the burial ground of Teurnia can be dated to about the last six decades of the 6th century AD, a period which corresponds to about three generations of the population. The occupation of the cemetery thus falls into the historically very varied period of Late Antiquity in Carinthia, during which this land, as the last remaining area of the former Roman province of Noricum mediterraneum, was administratively connected to the Italic motherland even after the end of the Western Roman Empire and continued to participate in its historical development. The burial ground of the 6th century that has now been uncovered contains burials from about three generations of the population of Teurnia, which settled in the castrum on the Holzerberg during the period indicated, mainly in the simple Late Antique buildings found there by R. Egger. This population belonged for the most part to the down-to-earth ethnicity of the country, which had been Romanised over the centuries, and, as the grave inventories show, also possessed the jewellery and costume accessories characteristic of this stratum. The fact that in the men's graves no typical equipment was found, such as weapons and the like, also speaks for this population and its characteristics, as do the way the graves were prepared and the form in which they were laid. The different types of jewellery and dress accessories of the women, which are comparable with the grave sites of the same period, are in some cases distinguished by a simpler method of manufacture and decoration, which can probably be explained by the existence and production of local workshops. This assumption is corroborated by the metal analysis of a basket earring fragment made of bronze, which is owed to E. Plöckinger, which showed that the high proportion of zinc with low tin content as well as the impurities of lead and antimony indicate that local, probably Carinthian ores were used for the production of the metal of the jewellery. This also means that the mines used in the region during the imperial period continued to operate despite the unfavourable economic conditions of late antiquity; in this context, the calamine mine on the Gurina in the Gail valley is particularly worthy of consideration. With regard to the various types of jewellery found in the graves, it can be assumed that, contrary to the custom of Christian burial, retarded cult ideas within the Romanised population led to the occasional addition of jewellery to the dead or to the burial of the dead in their traditional costume and with their jewellery. Another important statement of the cemetery of Teurnia lies in the fact that it is the first cemetery of this period that could be investigated in the inner south-eastern Alpine region. The comparison with the cemeteries of the same period in the southern Alpine foothills shows that relatively similar ethnic and cultural conditions prevailed in the entire circumscribed area during this epoch.

In 1844, Romania had a population of just 3.6 million people. During the early entries in this data, Romania's borders were very different and much smaller than today, and control of this area often switched hands between the Austrian, Ottoman and Russian empires. The populations during this time are based on estimates made for incomplete census data, and they show that the population grows from 3.6 million in 1844, doubling to 7.2 million in 1912, part of this growth is due to a high natural birth rate during this period, but also partly due to the changing of Romania's borders and annexation of new lands. During this time Romania gained its independence from the Ottoman Empire as a result of the Russo-Turkish War in 1878, and experienced a period of increased stability and progress.

Between 1912 and 1930 the population of Romania grew by over 10 million people. The main reason for this is the huge territories gained by Romania in the aftermath of the First World War. During the war Romania remained neutral for the first two years, after which it joined the allies; however, it was very quickly defeated and overrun by the Central Powers, and in total it lost over 600 thousand people as a direct result of the war. With the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian and Russian empires after the war, Romania gained almost double it's territory, which caused the population to soar to 18.1 million in 1930. The population then decreases by 1941 and again by 1948, as Romania seceded territory to neighboring countries and lost approximately half a million people during the Second World War. From 1948 onwards the population begins to grow again, reaching it's peak at 23.5 million people in 1990.

Like many other Eastern European countries, there was very limited freedom of movement from Romania during the Cold War, and communist rule was difficult for the Romanian people. The Romanian Revolution in 1989 ended communist rule in the country, Romania transitioned to a free-market society and movement from the country was allowed. Since then the population has fallen each year as more and more Romanians move abroad in search of work and opportunities. The population is expected to fall to 19.2 million in 2020, which is over 4 million fewer people than it had in 1990.

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.

Additional file 2: Supplementary tables S1-S15 contents.

Posterior probability (P) and 95% confidence interval of P (in brackets) computed using a direct (P1) and logistic regression (P2) approach are provided for each scenario tested by the DIYABC approach. The most likely scenario for each stage is reported in grey. Confidence in scenarios was evaluated using type I error (False negative) and type II error (False positive) rates for logistic regression.

The state of Belgium owes its name to Julius Caesar, who used the name "Belgium" to refer to the region in his narrative "The Gallic Wars". After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the region emerged as a cosmopolitan trading center, and was a collection of smaller duchies and states (such as Flanders and Brabant), before modern history saw control of the region pass between France, the Netherlands and (to a lesser extent) Spain. Modern day Belgium emerged in 1830 following the Belgian Revolution when it gained independence from the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Throughout this time, the Belgian region was the setting of many conflicts between other European powers, which greatly affected the population development and demography of the area. From 1800 until the First world War, the population of Belgium grew steadily, and more than doubled in the nineteenth century. The World Wars Population growth stagnated in the 1910s, as a result of World War I and the Spanish Flu epidemic. Belgium was one of the focal points of military action in the war, and many military personnel from other nations also lost their lives here during the conflict. Much of the Second World War also took place in Belgium, and although it remained neutral at the outbreak of both wars, it was invaded twice by Germany due to its strategic importance. Belgium suffered an estimated 88,000 fatalities during the war; with many further military fatalities from other nations also perishing in the region. Continuous growth From 1950 onwards, Belgium's population grows at a relatively consistent rate, to more than ten million people the year 2000. Since the turn of the millennium, a positive net migration rate and higher life expectancy has meant that Belgium's population has grown even faster rate than in the twentieth century. Today, Belgium has a very high standard of living, and the capital city of Brussels is home to the headquarters of many international institutions, particularly the European Union.

Jews were the dominant religious group in the Israel-Palestine region at the beginning of the first millennia CE, and are the dominant religious group there today, however, there was a period of almost 2,000 years where most of the world's Jews were displaced from their spiritual homeland. Antiquity to the 20th century Jewish hegemony in the region began changing after a series of revolts against Roman rule led to mass expulsions and emigration. Roman control saw severe persecution of Jewish and Christian populations, but this changed when the Byzantine Empire adopted Christianity as its official religion in the 4th century. Christianity then dominated until the 7th century, when the Rashidun Caliphate (the first to succeed Muhammad) took control of the Levant. Control of region split between Christians and Muslims intermittently between the 11th and 13th centuries during the Crusades, although the population remained overwhelmingly Muslim. Zionism until today Through the Paris Peace Conference, the British took control of Palestine in 1920. The Jewish population began growing through the Zionist Movement after the 1880s, which sought to establish a Jewish state in Palestine. Rising anti-Semitism in Europe accelerated this in the interwar period, and in the aftermath of the Holocaust, many European Jews chose to leave the continent. The United Nations tried facilitating the foundation of separate Jewish and Arab states, yet neither side was willing to concede territory, leading to a civil war and a joint invasion from seven Arab states. Yet the Jews maintained control of their territory and took large parts of the proposed Arab territory, forming the Jewish-majority state of Israel in 1948, and acheiving a ceasefire the following year. Over 750,000 Palestinians were displaced as a result of this conflict, while most Jews from the Arab eventually fled to Israel. Since this time, Israel has become one of the richest and advanced countries in the world, however, Palestine has been under Israeli military occupation since the 1960s and there are large disparities in living standards between the two regions.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in the 5th century, the Catholic Church, centered in Rome, became the largest unifying authority in Southern and Western Europe. However, it was not the Italian peninsula that has the highest number of churches, monasteries, and abbeys during the Middle Ages, but France.

The monastic movement of St. Benedict, formed in the 6th century, eventually consolidated its power in France and gained widespread influence over the region. By the 12th century, the Benedictine monastery in Cluny, Burgundy, controlled over 1,000 other abbeys (even as far as Scotland), and was considered the leading center of Christian monasticism. In many ways, the Church was considered a more powerful authority than monarchies in the Middle Ages, and the hierarchical nature of the Church saw cardinals and bishops elevated to positions of significant power. In addition to being places of worship, abbeys and monasteries also became trading and communal centers for local populations before the era of urbanization.