Historical Data (for modders)

[Andrelvis]

I thought it would be a good idea to start a thread to provide historical data to modders, so that those interested can use them when the game is released in August.

As one recurring idea for expansion of the game's time period by modders in V1 was extending it to the early modern era, I am including information from the Renaissance on as well here. As thorough censuses only started becoming widespread in the 18th century, most of the numbers referring to preceding times are estimates; some of the sources here provided discuss how those estimates are done as well. Sources are provided in parenthesis after each entry.

I recommend checking out http://www.populstat.info/ as well, as it has a vast wealth of information, even for earlier periods (it has, for example, information on Estonia's population in 1200 and Portugal's in 1527); far too much information to be included here, in fact.

Population Data

Europe

1348: 59,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)

Central Europe

Austrian Empire
1700: 8,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1750: 18,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1800: 28,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1890: 42,600,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1890: 2,400,000 (5.6%) urban population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1900: 3,100,000 (6.6%) urban population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1910: 50,800,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1910: 4,200,000 (8.2%) urban population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1913: 52,100,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1913: 4,600,000 (8.8%) urban population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Czechoslovakia
1600: 2,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1900: 8,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)

Germany
1500: 13,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)

Hungary
1500: 1,500,000 total population (http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/pop-in-eur.html)

Italy
1500: 11,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1600: 13,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)

Naples
1545: 422,080 total population (The Iron Century, p. 22; by Henry Kamen)
1595: 540,090 total population (The Iron Century, p. 22; by Henry Kamen)

Eastern Europe

Poland
1500: 4,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1600: 3,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1620: 30,000 Scots (The Iron Century, p. 421; by Henry Kamen)

Russia
1500: 10,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1700: 17,500,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Northern Europe

Norway
1520: 246,000 total population (The Iron Century, p. 22; by Henry Kamen)
1590: 359,000 total population (The Iron Century, p. 22; by Henry Kamen)

Scandinavia
1600: 2,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1900: 10,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)

Southeastern Europe

Balkans
1500: 7,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)

Western Europe

British Isles
1500: 5,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1600: 5,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1700: 9,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1750: 10,500,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1800: 16,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1881: 15,000 medics (The Age of Empire 1875-1914, p. 272; by Eric J. Hobsbawm)
1881: 7,000 architects (The Age of Empire 1875-1914, p. 272; by Eric J. Hobsbawm)
1890: 37,400,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1900: 41,100,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1901: 22,000 medics (The Age of Empire 1875-1914, p. 272; by Eric J. Hobsbawm)
1901: 11,000 architects (The Age of Empire 1875-1914, p. 272; by Eric J. Hobsbawm)
1910: 44,900,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1913: 45,600,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1914: 45,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1920: 44,400,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1928: 45,700,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

England
1377: 2,600,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937) or 2,200,000 total population (Late Mediaeval Population Patterns, p. 12; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1945)
1377: 29,161+ clergymen (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1541: 2,770,000 total population (Commercial Activity and Population Growth in Medieval England, p. 34; article; by John Langdon and James Masschaele)
1545: 3,220,000 total population (Late Mediaeval Population Patterns, p. 12; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1945)
1656: 5,280,000 total population (Commercial Activity and Population Growth in Medieval England, p. 34; article; by John Langdon and James Masschaele)

France
1500: 16,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1600: 17,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)
1700: 19,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1750: 21,500,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1800: 28,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1890: 38,300,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1900: 38,900,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1910: 39,500,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1911: 20,000 medics (The Age of Empire 1875-1914, p. 272; by Eric J. Hobsbawm)
1913: 39,700,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1914: 39,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1920: 39,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1928: 41,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Iberia
1500: 9,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)
1600: 10,000,000 total population (Medieval Population, p. 2; article; by Josiah Cox Russell, 1937)

Netherlands (the State)
1700: 1,800,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1750: 1,900,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1800: 2,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Netherlands (the whole region)
1500: 2,000,000 total population (http://scholar.chem.nyu.edu/tekpages/population.html)

Spain
1700: 6,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1750: 9,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1768: 7.2% nobles (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1768: 2.2% ecclesiastics (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1787: 4.6% nobles (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1787: 1.8% ecclesiastics (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1787: 17.3% farmers (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1787: 3% artisans (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1797: 11,500,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 79)
1797: 3.8% nobles (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1797: 1.6% ecclesiastics (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1797: 15.2% farmers (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1797: 5% artisans (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 46)
1800: 11,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1822: 11,661,865 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 79)
1834: 12,162,172 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 79)
1857: 15,464,348 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 79)
1860: 15,673,421 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 79)
1868: 16,088,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 133)
1877: 16,603,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 133)
1900: 18,566,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 133)
1910: 19,858,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 133)
1920: 21,232,000 total population (Atlas Histórico de España vol. II, p. 133)

America

Haiti
1789: 500,000 (85-90%) slaves ("La Independencia de Haiti y Santo Domingo" in História de América Latina; by Moya Pons)
1789: 28,000 colored free ("La Independencia de Haiti y Santo Domingo" in História de América Latina; by Moya Pons)
1789: 40,000 white ("La Independencia de Haiti y Santo Domingo" in História de América Latina; by Moya Pons)

United States
1750: 2,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1800: 4,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1890: 62,600,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1900: 75,900,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1910: 91,900,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1913: 97,300,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1914: 98,000,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1920: 105,700,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1928: 119,100,000 total population (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Asia

China
1700: 160,000,000 total population (Commercial Activity and Population Growth in Medieval England, p. 33; article; by John Langdon and James Masschaele)

Military Data

Army Size

Austria

1789: 300,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1816: 220,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1830: 273,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1860: 306,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1880: 273,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

France

1789: 180,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1816: 132,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1830: 259,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1860: 608,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1880: 544,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Great Britain

1789: 40,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1816: 255,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1830: 140,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1860: 347,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1880: 248,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Prussia

1789: 190,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1816: 130,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1830: 130,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1860: 201,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Russia

1789: 300,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1816: 800,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1830: 826,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1860: 862,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1880: 909,000 men (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Navy Size

China
1420: 1,350 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers, p. 16; by Paul Kennedy)

France
1689: 120 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1739: 50 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1756: 70 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1779: 63 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1790: 81 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1815: 80 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Great Britain
1689: 100 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1739: 124 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1756: 105 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1779: 90 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1790: 195 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1815: 214 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Netherlands
1689: 66 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1739: 49 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1779: 20 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1790: 44 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

Spain
1739: 34 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1779: 48 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1790: 72 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)
1815: 25 ships (Rise and Fall of Great Powers; by Paul Kennedy)

 

[OHgamer]

Andrelvis, while that info is interesting, as someone who has done a massive amount of modding in the past for Victoria 1, to put it delicately most of the info in your post is irrelevant. If you are going to mod population, army sizes and any of a whole host of items, you need much more specifics that just the overall population of Scandinavia in 1900. For population, you need as close to the year you start your mod in (1836 for the base game), and preferably data for the regions within those nations (you have 10 million in Scandinavia in 1900, but what does that break down to not only betwee Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, but also the various regions within Sweden, etc).

The populstat website is indeed highly valuable, and is one of my major sources for population data, though even it needs to be used with a bit of care, as some of the numbers he cites come from sources that can be more than a little off. But as a starting point it's a great resource.

I think at this point it is probably putting the cart before the horse a bit to be focusing too much on modding resources as a point of discussion on the forum, though given that the game is not out for another 2-3 months I guess that is to be expected to a degree. It is going to take some time for everyone to learn the base mechanics of the game first, which is always the best thing to do before starting off on any modding project, unless it is something simple and even then spending some time playing the game first might give insights on how best to model certain elements that might not have appeared beforehand.

 

[takedown47]

awesome work! i've been planning to mod vicky2 with an ambition toward making it a cool experience covering (1792-2092), so from the french revolutionary wars in pre-industrial world, through the victorian era into the 20th century and beyond in the current age. after reading through the dev diaries on certain features and improvements made on the original game i believe this is possible.

 

[Andrelvis]

Andrelvis, while that info is interesting, as someone who has done a massive amount of modding in the past for Victoria 1, to put it delicately most of the info in your post is irrelevant. If you are going to mod population, army sizes and any of a whole host of items, you need much more specifics that just the overall population of Scandinavia in 1900. For population, you need as close to the year you start your mod in (1836 for the base game), and preferably data for the regions within those nations (you have 10 million in Scandinavia in 1900, but what does that break down to not only betwee Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Iceland, but also the various regions within Sweden, etc).

I understand, but I think it is relevant enough to provide a base for modders, specially the data for the early modern period, as one problem that was run into with the Elizabeth mod for Victoria was the lack of any sources on population; while most of the data I have put here is indeed for large regions, it should serve as a guideline so that the size of population in those areas is kept reasonable; in other words, while not enough to make a mod out of, I think these statistics can help.

The populstat website is indeed highly valuable, and is one of my major sources for population data, though even it needs to be used with a bit of care, as some of the numbers he cites come from sources that can be more than a little off. But as a starting point it's a great resource.

I think at this point it is probably putting the cart before the horse a bit to be focusing too much on modding resources as a point of discussion on the forum, though given that the game is not out for another 2-3 months I guess that is to be expected to a degree. It is going to take some time for everyone to learn the base mechanics of the game first, which is always the best thing to do before starting off on any modding project, unless it is something simple and even then spending some time playing the game first might give insights on how best to model certain elements that might not have appeared beforehand.

That is true, though given the Dev Diaries up to now, I would guess that these kinds of statistics would be as relevant to V2 as they would be to V1.

I don't mean to rebuff your criticism, I appreciate it; but I think that, even if such data isn't very relevant, it's still relevant enough to help.

awesome work! i've been planning to mod vicky2 with an ambition toward making it a cool experience covering (1792-2092), so from the french revolutionary wars in pre-industrial world, through the victorian era into the 20th century and beyond in the current age. after reading through the dev diaries on certain features and improvements made on the original game i believe this is possible.

Thanks

 

[Gatkramp]

What are good places to look for historical population data? Simply because I want to try and work on the Southern African region for that. In Vicky that region was very poorly done (as usual for non-European areas), and I would like to see what I can do for it, while staying accurate.