Demographics of the Ottoman Empire

This article is about the demographics of the Ottoman Empire, including population density, ethnicity, education level, religious affiliations and other aspects of the population.

Lucy Mary Jane Garnett stated in the 1904 book ''Turkish Life in Town and Country'', published in 1904, that "No country in the world, perhaps, contains a population so heterogeneous as that of Turkey." Garnett, Lucy Mary Jane. ''Turkish Life in Town and Country''. G.P. Putnam's Sons, 1904. p
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Census

Demographic data for most of the history of the Ottoman Empire is not quite precise. For most of the five centuries of its existence, the empire did not have easily computable valid data except figures for the number of employed citizens. Until the first official census (1881–1893), data was derived from extending the taxation values to the total population. Because of the use of taxation data to infer population size, detailed data for numerous Ottoman urban centers - towns with more than 5,000 inhabitants - is accurate. This data was collaborated with data on wages and prices. Another source was used for the numbers of landlords of households in the Ottoman Empire- every household was assumed to have 5 residents.

File:Town_ottoman_balkan_religion.png, Town population in the Balkans in the 16th century

1831 Ottoman census

Entire villages remained uncounted. Taxable population was enumerated, i.e. healthy men over 15 years old. For some settlements the rest of the male population was the majority.

1844 Ottoman census

1881-1893 Ottoman census

The first official census (1881–1893) took 10 years to finish. In 1893 the results were compiled and presented. This census is the first modern, general and standardized census accomplished not for taxation nor for military purposes, but to acquire demographic data. The population was divided into ethno-religious and gender characteristics. Numbers of both male and female subjects are given in ethno-religious categories including Muslims, Greeks (including Greek Macedonians, Asia Minor Greeks, Pontic Greeks, and Caucasus Greeks, all Orthodox Christians under the Greek Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople from extremely distinct ethnic origin), Armenians, Macedonian Slavs, Bulgarians, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Latins, Syriacs and Roma.

In 1867 the Council of States took charge of drawing population tables, increasing the precision of population records. They introduced new measures of recording population counts in 1874. This led to the establishment of a General Population Administration, attached to the Ministry of Interior in 1881–1882. These changes politicized the population counts.

Image:Prorportions des populations musulmanes grecques et armeniennes en AsieMineure d'apres la statistique du livreJaune.png, 1893-96, Muslim, Greek and Armenian population
Image:Armenian population map 1896.jpg, 1893-96, Armenian distribution (in color)
Image:Карта распределения армянского населения в Турецкой Армении и Курдистане, 1895.jpg, 1893-96, Green shows Muslim majority, red shows Armenian majority.

1905-1906 Ottoman census

Image:The Historical Atlas, 1911 – Distribution of Races in the Balkan Peninsula and Asia Minor.jpg, 1905-1906 (printed in 1911)
File:Muslim population Ottoman Empire vilayets provinces 1906 1907 census.png, Muslim population in the Ottoman vilayets (1907)
File:Sanjak_Ottoman_western_Balkans1906_1907_Ottoman_census_muslim_percentage.png, Muslim population in the Ottoman sanjaks

After 1893 the Ottoman Empire established a statistics authority (Istatistik-i Umumi Idaresi) under which results of another official census was published in 1899.

Istatistik-i Umumi Idaresi conducted a new census survey for which field work lasted two years (1905–06). 2-3 million people in Iraq and Syria remained unregistered and uncounted.
As a factual note this survey's complete (total) documentation was not published. Results of regional studies on this data were published later, which were sorted by their publication date. Included in the publication and subsequent ones was the Ottoman Empire's population as of 1911, 1912, and 1914. The substantial archival documentation on the census has been used in many modern studies and international publications. After 1906 the Ottoman Empire began to disband and a chain of violent wars such as the Italo-Turkish War, Balkan Wars and World War I drastically changed the region, its borders, and its demographics.

1914 Ottoman census

Image:Proportions des populations en Asie Mineure statistique officielle d1914.png, 1914, Muslim, Greek and Armenian population.

1866 Danube Vilayet census

In 1865, 658600 (40,51%) Muslims and 967058 (59,49%) non-Muslims, including females, were living in the province excluding Niş sanjak and 569.868 (34,68%) Muslims, apart from the immigrants and 1.073.496 (65,32%) non-Muslims in 1859–1860. Half the Muslims were refugees from a population exchange of Christians and Muslims with Russia. Before the establishment of the Danube Vilayet, some 250000-300000 Muslim immigrants from Crimea and Caucasus had been settled in this region from 1855 to 1864. Another 200–300,000 male and female Circassian and Crimean Tatar refugees settled in 1862-1878 were to a degree excluded from the 1866 census count.

Male population of the taxable population of the, Danube Vilayet:

Percentage of communities in towns from the male population in 1866 according to Ottoman teskere:

In 1873, 17,96% of the population of the province were living in the urban areas.

1874 Danube Vilayet census

According to the 1874 census, there were 963596 (42,22%) Muslims and 1318506 (57,78%) non-Muslims in the Danube Province excluding Nış sanjak. Together with the sanjak of Nish the population consisted of 1055650 (40,68%) Muslims and 1539278 (59,32%) non-Muslims in 1874. Muslims were the majority in the sanjaks of Rusçuk, Varna and Tulça, while the non-Muslims were in majority in the rest of the sanjaks.

Eastern Rumelia census

Census in Eastern Rumelia of 1878:

Census of Eastern Rumelia in 1880:

The ethnic composition of the population of Eastern Rumelia, according to the provincial census taken in 1884, was the following:

Population of Eastern Rumelia according to the 1880 census:

1903-1904 census of

Salonika Vilayet