Abstract
Population of Europe. Some comparisons of density and distribution of European population in 1720, 1820 and 1930 are made by Mr. J. Haliczer in Geography of December 1934. The data for 1720 involve various calculations back from later years and contemporary estimates. Those for 1820 include census figures for most of the States of Western Europe but, as in 1720, no data of any value are available for the Balkan peninsula. In 1930 reliable census figures are used. So far as comparisons are valid, Mr. Haliczer computes that the population in 1820 was 1-89 times that in 1720 and in 1930 it was 4-51 times that of 1720. Two centuries ago the population everywhere was sparse except in the Rhine valley, central Germany, the English plain and the Po basin. The regulating factor of chief import was then soil fertility, but the black soil area of southern Russia was almost empty. By 1820, the ranges between maximum and minimum densities were small, but industrialised areas were beginning to show marked increases. The peopling of the black earth region was beginning. By 1930 inequalities in density were very marked owing to industrialism, and in Russia the ‘centre of gravity’ of population had shifted south. A further estimate shows that in 1720 the ‘centre of gravity’ of Europe's population was about 45 miles east of Munich, in 1820 it was 14 miles east of Passau and in 1930 it had moved to 30 miles north of Vienna. In other words, it has shown a steady tendency to move east, thus decreasing the percentage of the whole population that inhabits western Europe. The total shift in two centuries is 124 miles.
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Research Items. Nature 135, 38–39 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/135038a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/135038a0