Population pyramid - Lithuania census 1923

The Lithuanian census of 1923 was performed on September 17–23, several years after

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

re-established its independence in 1918. It was mandated by the

Constituent Assembly of Lithuania The Constituent Assembly of Lithuania ( lt, Steigiamasis Seimas) was the first parliament of the independent state of Lithuania to be elected in a direct, democratic, general, secret election. The Assembly assumed its duties on 15 May 1920 and w ...

in 1922. The census counted the total population of 2,028,971. It was the only census in

interwar Lithuania The history of Lithuania dates back to settlements founded many thousands of years ago, but the first written record of the name for the country dates back to 1009 AD. Lithuanians, one of the Balts, Baltic peoples, later conquered neighboring la ...

. The next census was carried out in 1959 as part of the

Soviet census The following is a summary of censuses carried out in the Soviet Union: See also *Russian Census *Censuses in Ukraine Notes References {{USSRCensus Demographics of the Soviet Union Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the ...

. The census results were organized into "enumeration territories" that followed county borders; of the 24 enumeration territories, four were cities that had been granted county rights (

Kaunas Kaunas (; ; also see other names) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaunas was the largest city and the centre of a county in the Duchy of Trakai ...

Šiauliai Šiauliai (; bat-smg, Šiaulē; german: Schaulen, ) is the fourth largest city in Lithuania, with a population of 107,086. From 1994 to 2010 it was the capital of Šiauliai County. Names Šiauliai is referred to by various names in different l ...

Panevėžys Panevėžys (; Latin: ''Panevezen''; pl, Poniewież; yi, פּאָנעװעזש, ''Ponevezh''; see also other names) is the fifth largest city in Lithuania. As of 2011, it occupied with 113,653 inhabitants. As defined by Eurostat, the population ...

, and Vilkmergė). Populations in the

Vilnius Region Vilnius Region is the territory in present-day Lithuania and Belarus that was originally inhabited by ethnic Baltic tribes and was a part of Lithuania proper, but came under East Slavic and Polish cultural influences over time. The territory ...

, which had been incorporated into the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

, and the

Klaipėda Region The Klaipėda Region ( lt, Klaipėdos kraštas) or Memel Territory (german: Memelland or ''Memelgebiet'') was defined by the 1919 Treaty of Versailles in 1920 and refers to the northernmost part of the German province of East Prussia, when as ...

, annexed by Lithuania in 1923, were not counted. The census cost 605,600

litas The Lithuanian litas (ISO currency code LTL, symbolized as Lt; plural ''litai'' (nominative) or ''litų'' (genitive) was the currency of Lithuania, until 1 January 2015, when it was replaced by the euro. It was divided into 100 centų (genit ...

. Its 3,100 investigators consisted of civil servants and students enrolled in higher education. The data were transmitted to the Central Bureau of Statistics via telegraph and telephones. Results were published in statistical bulletins during 1924 and 1925, followed by a more public presentation in the Lithuanian and French languages in 1926. The census found that 15.8% lived in towns with populations over 2,000 and about 75% of the population was employed in the agricultural sector. There were 27 cities, 241 towns, and 16,388 villages. 44.1% of the population was illiterate, including 32.6% of those over 10 years of age. A determination of ethnicity was made on the basis of language. The census found the population was 83.9% Lithuanian, 7.6% Jewish, 3.2% Polish, 2.5% Russian, 1.4% German, 0.4% Latvian, 0.2% Belarusian, and 0.8% others. The Polish Election Committee disputed the census' ethnic composition findings, stating that Poles comprised 10% of the population and Lithuanians 76.4%. The higher results were based on votes cast for Polish political candidates in the 1923 Lithuanian elections, which would put the Polish population at about 202,000 or between 9.5–10% of the population, if one interprets the election results in a way that anyone who voted for a Polish candidate must necessarily be a Pole.

References

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Palgrave Macmillan Palgrave Macmillan is a British academic and trade publishing company headquartered in the London Borough of Camden. Its programme includes textbooks, journals, monographs, professional and reference works in print and online. It maintains off ...

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European Commission The European Commission (EC) is the executive of the European Union (EU). It operates as a cabinet government, with 27 members of the Commission (informally known as "Commissioners") headed by a President. It includes an administrative body o ...

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United Nations Statistics Division The United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD), formerly the United Nations Statistical Office, serves under the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) as the central mechanism within the Secretariat of the United Nations t ...

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Westview Press Taylor & Francis Group is an international company originating in England that publishes books and academic journals. Its parts include Taylor & Francis, Routledge, F1000 Research or Dovepress. It is a division of Informa plc, a United Ki ...

, year=1997 , isbn=978-0813318394 , page=31 1923 in Lithuania 1923