List of countries by population in 1600

This is a list of countries by population in 1600. Estimate numbers are from the beginning of the year, and exact population figures are for countries that held a census on various dates in that year. The bulk of these numbers are sourced from Alexander V. Avakov's Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics, Volume 1, pages 15 to 17, which cover population figures from the year 1600 divided into modern borders. Avakov, in turn, cites a variety of sources, mostly Angus Maddison.

Country/Territory	Population c. 1600 estimate	Percentage of World Population
World	579,000,000	–
Ming Dynasty[1][2] Subdivisions Liaodong Regional Military Commission – ? Dokham Regional Military Commission – ? Sichuan Province Tusi – ? Guizhou Province Tusi – ? Guangxi Province Tusi – ? Yunnan Province Tusi – ? Chinese Shan States – ?	60,000,000–150,000,000	27.6%
Mughal Empire[3][4][a] Subdivisions Jaisalmer – ? Bikaner – ? Marwar – ? Mewar – ? Amber – ? Dungarpur – ? Kotah – ? Gondi states – ?	~115,000,000	19.9%
Holy Roman Empire[4][b] subdivisions Bohemian Crown – 2,950,000[8]  Archduchy of Austria (and related territories) – 2,500,000 Spanish Netherlands – 1,600,000+[9] Duchy of Milan – 1,350,000[10] Savoy – 1,200,000[c]  Electorate of Saxony – 1,200,000[12]  Republic of the Swiss – 1,000,000  Electorate of Bavaria – ~800,000[13]  Republic of Genoa – 650,000[14] Grand Duchy of Tuscany – 648,000[15] Electoral Palatinate – ~600,000[16]  Margraviate of Brandenburg- ~350,000[17] Duchy of Württemberg – ? Duchy of Modena and Reggio – ~250,000[18] Duchy of Parma – ~250,000 Margraviate of Baden – ? Thuringian states – ? Duchy of Carniola – 248,000[19] Landgraviate of Hesse-Kassel 230,000[20] Duchy of Holstein – 185,000[21] Republic of Lucca – 110,000[15] Landgraviate of Hesse-Darmstadt – 50,000 Duchy of Mecklenburg-Schwerin – ? Nassau-Weilburg – ? Prince-Bishopric of Würzburg – ? County of Oldenburg – ? Duchy of Luxemburg – ? Imperial County of Reuss – ? Principality of Lippe – ? Duchy of Mecklenburg-Strelitz – ? Anhalt-Dessau – ? Arenberg – ? Anhalt-Bernburg – ? Anhalt-Köthen – ? County of Schaumburg – ? Liechtenstein – ? Prince-Archbishopric of Salzburg- ? Principality of Calenberg – ? Electorate of Mainz – 100,000+[22] Franche-Comté – ? Electorate of Trier – 100,000+[22]  Electorate of Cologne – 100,000+[22] Duchy of Brunswick-Luneburg – ? Saxe-Lauenburg – ? Prince-Bishopric of Münster – ? Archbishopric of Magdeburg – ?  Hamburg – ~20,000[23] Free City of Lübeck – ? Duchy of Schleswig – ? Prince-bishopric of Lübeck – ? Prince-Bishopric of Trent – ? Principality of Ansbach – ?	27,000,000+ – 34,000,000+	5.2%
Iberian Union and possessions subdivisions Spanish America – c. 9,745,000[24] Kingdom of Spain – 8,240,000[25] Kingdom of Naples – 3,000,000[15] Spanish Netherlands (Belgium) – 1,600,000+ Duchy of Milan – 1,350,000  Kingdom of Portugal – 1,100,000 Kingdom of Sicily – 1,100,000[15] Captaincy General of the Philippines – 791,000 Franche-Comté – ? Goa state – 250,000[26] Diu – ? Viceroyalty of Sardinia – 300,000[15] Malacca – ~195,000[15] Viceroyalty of Brazil – 45,000 Bahrain – 54,000 Duchy of Luxemburg – ? Andorra – ?	28,745,000	5.0%
Ottoman Empire[4][27] subdivisions Anatolia and East Thrace – 7,275,000 Egypt Eyalet – 5,000,000 Ottoman Algeria – 2,250,000 Greece[28] – 1,500,000 Bulgaria – 1,250,000 Syria – 1,175,000 Iraq- 1,070,000 Serbia – 1,057,000 Beylik of Tunis – 1,000,000 Ottoman Hungary – 900,000 Ottoman Tripolitania – 500,000 Bosnia Eyalet – 449,000 Sidon Eyalet – 292,000 Palestine – 352,000 Cyprus – 98,000 Habesh Eyalet – ? Ottoman Albania[29] – 200,000 vassal states Principality of Transylvania – 965,000[30]  Principality of Moldavia - 440,000[31]  Principality of Wallachia - 300,000[31] Crimean Khanate - 2,740,000  Sultanate of Aceh - ?	28,740,000	5.0%
Kingdom of France[4] subdivisions Kingdom of Navarre – ? Andorra Viscounty of Béarn	18,000,000+ - 20,000,000+	3.5%
Kingdom of Morocco and possessions[4][32][d] subdivisions Pashalik of Timbuktu – 10,810,860 Morocco – 2,250,000	13,060,860	2.3%
Tokugawa Japan[33]	12,000,000	2.1%
Joseon[34]	11,000,000	1.6%
Tsardom of Russia[35]	~9,000,000	1.6%
Safavid Iran[36]	Under 5,000,000 to near 10,000,000	1.3%
Habsburg Monarchy[37] subdivisions Bohemian Crown – 2,950,000  Archduchy of Austria – 2,100,000 Kingdom of Hungary – 1,800,000 Kingdom of Croatia – est. 647,000 Duchy of Carniola – 290,000	7,800,000	1.3%
Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth[38] subdivisions Royal Prussia – ? Duchy of Courland and Semigallia – ? Duchy of Livonia – ?	7,950,000	1.4%
England and possessions[39] subdivisions  Kingdom of England – 4,150,000 Kingdom of Ireland – 1,200,000 Wales – 250,000	5,600,000	1.0%
Lê dynasty (Đại Việt)[40]	5,500,000	0.9%
Taungoo dynasty (Burma)[41][42][e] subdivisions Shan States – ?	3,500,000	0.6%
Ahom kingdom	2,000,000-3,000,000[46]	0.3%-0.5%
Northern Yuan[47]	~2,760,000	0.5%
Malla[4]	2,750,000	0.5%
Ayutthaya Kingdom (Siam)[48]	c. 2,500,000	0.4%
Ethiopian Empire[4]	2,104,000	0.4%
Republic of Venice[49]	2,000,000	0.3%
Kingdom of Kongo[50]	2,000,000	0.3%
Jianzhou Jurchen Confederation[51]	<2,000,000	0.3%
Dutch Republic[4]	1,500,000	0.3%
Cambodia[4]	1,419,000	0.2%
Sweden[52] subdivisions Kingdom of Sweden – 760,000 Grand Duchy of Finland- 500,000 Duchy of Estonia- 101,000	1,361,000	0.2%
Denmark–Norway[53][54][55] subdivisions  Denmark – 650,000 Norway- 400,000 Iceland- 50,000 Greenland – ?	1,100,000	0.2%
Kingdom of Scotland[56]	800,000	0.14%
Republic of Genoa[14]	650,000	0.11%
Kingdom of Lan Xang[4]	319,000	0.055%
Malay Sultanates of Johor, Kedah, Pattani, and Perak[57]	<200,000 (together)	0.133%
Kingdom of Mrauk U	160,000+[58][59][f]	0.107%
Arab Emirates[4]	35,000	0.006%
Nan Madol (Saudeleur dynasty)	25,000[60]	0.004%
Rapa Nui (Easter Island)[61]	15,000	0.003%

Historical Demographics
Altar of Domitius Ahenobarbus
Articles
Demographic history
Historical demography
World population estimates
List of Countries by Population
1500	1600	1700

The source used here calculates the said nations population by modern day borders, so the estimates are likely inaccurate.

See also

• List of countries by population
• List of countries by population in 1000
• List of countries by population in 1500
• List of countries by population in 1700
• List of countries by population in 1800
• List of countries by population in 1900

Notes

1. In 1600 the Mughals ruled roughly 50% of India, which had a population of 113 million at the time according to Avakov.
2. Combining Avakov's listed populations for Germany (16m), Austria (2.5m), Czechia (3.242m), Belgium (1.6m), Switzerland (1m), Slovenia (0.248m), and a third of Italy (4.3m) yields 28.9 million inhabitants; Avakov p. 15. This total does not include the Empire's various now-French territories such as Franche-Comté (6,300 square miles, ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs), the départements of Nord and Pas-de-Calais (4,800 square miles together, ruled by the Spanish Habsburgs as part of the Spanish Netherlands), Alsace (3,200 square miles), or the County of Nice (1,500 square miles, ruled by the Savoyards). While still claimed by the Emperor, this total also does not count the independent Dutch Republic. An estimate by the Austrian War Archives in the first decade of the 18th century (most scholars agree that the areas of the Empire covered had a similar population in both the early 17th and early 18th centuries)^[5] gives a population of 28 million for the German lands, Bohemia, and the Spanish Netherlands, which would add up to 33.5 million for the whole Empire in the early 17th century, excluding said now-French territories (Italian and Swiss populations listed below for their individual states). However, Benecke considers the Austrian War Archives figure to be "overgenerous."^[6] Yet another source gives a population of 20 million for "Germany, Austria, and Bohemia."^[7] Adding to that figure the already-listed ones for the Spanish Netherlands, Switzerland, and Italy equals a population of about 27 million, plus the French territories.
3. A figure of 800,000 is given by Smith for "Savoy in Italy", with no clarification as to whether that refers to the whole Savoyard state or just its Italian territories of Piedmont and the Aosta Valley (thus excluding Savoy proper and the County of Nice). However another source^[11] gives early 17th century Piedmont's population as 700,000, and Savoy proper's as 400,000, with no numbers given for Aosta or Nice; indicating that Smith's use of "Savoy in Italy" does indeed only refer to Piedmont and Aosta.
4. The Songhai kingdom ruled roughly 1,400,000 sq km of land, or 540,543.022 sq miles in the 15th and 16th centuries. Around the same time, West Africa's population density was 20 persons per sq mile, an average between the estimates of Manning and Niane.
5. (Lieberman 1984: 18): No large-scale censuses of any kind were conducted. Extant censuses from the period cover just four corridors of settlement in Lower Burma: Bassein-Myaungmya in the western delta; Martaban-Moulmein littoral; Myan Aung to Danubyu in the eastern delta; Pegu-Syriam-Dagon—capital region. (Lieberman 1984: 21–22): In 1581, a regional census of the 16 leading townships of Lower Burma showed a combined population of less than 28,000 households (~200,000 people). (Lieberman 1984: 20): The first-ever Irrawaddy valley-wide census was conducted only in 1638, and the results did not survive.
   
   Estimates above of the population of the empire point to over 6 million. In 1600, the most populous region of the erstwhile empire was Upper Burma (1.5 million),^[43] followed by the Shan high lands (1 million)^[44] and Lower Burma (0.5 million)^[45]—for a total of at least 5.5 million. Estimates for Lan Na, Lan Xang and Manipur are not known. The size of the population of the empire before the devastating wars of 1584–99 was probably over 6 million. The population of the Pegu capital region, according to a 1581 census, was only about 200,000.^[45]
6. Southeast Asian polities were traditionally centered on the capital. The capital, Mrauk U, had a population of 160,000 in 1635.

References

1. Rowe, William T. (2009). China's Last Empire: The Great Qing. p. 91.
2. Yi, Zhongtian (November 2007). The End of the Empire. Fudan University Press. p. 254.
3. Irfan Habib, Dharma Kumar, Tapan Raychaudhuri (1987). The Cambridge Economic History of India (PDF). Vol. 1. Cambridge University Press. p. 170.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
4. Avakov, Alexander V. (April 2015). Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics, Volume 1. Algora. ISBN 9781628941012. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
5. Wilson, p. 795.
6. G. Benecke, Society and Politics in Germany, 1500–1750, Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1974, p. 162.
7. J.P. Sommerville. "The Holy Roman Empire in the Seventeenth Century". Archived from the original on 31 January 2014. Retrieved 21 May 2017.. Archived .
8. Wilson, p. 788.
9. 1.6 million only counts Belgium; the Spanish Netherlands also included Luxembourg and bits of modern Germany and France.
10. Preserved Smith. The Social Background of the Reformation. 1920. Page 19.
11. Gregory Hanlon. "The Hero of Italy: Odoardo Farnese, Duke of Parma, his Soldiers, and his Subjects in the Thirty Years' War." Routledge: May 2014. Page 87.
12. Wilson, Peter H. (2009). "Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War." Allen Lane. Page 18.
13. Wilson, p. 23.
14. Smith, p. 19: 500,000 on the mainland and 150,000 in Corsica.
15. Smith, p. 19.
16. Wilson, p. 18
17. Wilson, p. 18.
18. Smith, p. 19: the population of "Parma, Piacenza, and Modena together" is given as 500,000.
19. Roughly modern Slovenia.
20. Wilson, p. 870: "The Rheinfels branch died out in 1583 and was shared between the other three. As senior line, Hessen-Kassel possessed 6,100 km^2 with 160,000 inhabitants, while Darmstadt had 1,300 km^2 and 50,000 inhabitants and Marburg the remaining quarter." Hesse-Kassel and Marburg were integrated in 1604.
21. Wilson, p. 169
22. Wilson, p. 17
23. Smith, p. 17.
24. Figures derived from Ángel Rosenblat (1902–1984).
25. Avakov, Alexander V. (April 2015). Two Thousand Years of Economic Statistics, Volume 1. ISBN 9781628941012. Retrieved 4 May 2016.
26. M.N. Pearson. "The New Cambridge History of India: The Portuguese in India." 1988. Pages 92–93: "In 1524 there were 450 Portuguese householders in Goa city, and in 1540 about 1800. The former figure refers to 'pure' Portuguese, while the latter includes descendants of Portuguese and local women, in other words mestizos. There were also 3,600 soldiers in the town in 1540. Later in the 1540s, at the time of St Francis Xavier, the city population included 10,000 Indian Christians, 3,000–4,000 Portuguese, and many non-Christians, while outside the city the rest of Ilhas contained 50,000 inhabitants, 80 percent of them Hindu. Recent estimates put the city population at 60,000 in the 1580s, and about 75,000 at 1600, the latter figure including 1,500 Portuguese and mestizos, 20,000 Hindus, and the rest local Christians, Africans, and others. In the 1630s the total population of the Old Conquests — Ilhas, Bardes and Salcette — was perhaps a little more than a quarter of a million... Casualties in the endless skirmishes with Malabaris and others were often substantial. Cholera and malaria also took their toll; one estimate claims that from 1604 to 1634, 25,000 soldiers died in the Royal Hospital in Goa."
27. "religiya-karaimov" (PDF).
28. At the time, divided between the Eyalet of the Archipelago and the Rumelia Eyalet.
29. A. Maddison, The World Economy Volume 1: A Millennial Perspective, 2001
30. Keul, István (2009). Early Modern Religious Communities in East-Central Europe: Ethnic Diversity, Denominational Plurality, and Corporative Politics in the Principality of Transylvania (1526–1691). BRILL. p. 41. ISBN 978-9004176522.
31. Murgescu, Bogdan (14 June 2016). Romania si Europa. Polirom. pp. 75–76. ISBN 9789734620418.
32. Walker, Sheila S. (2001). African Roots/American Cultures: Africa in the Creation of the Americas. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 978-0-7425-0165-2.
33. "Population Trends in Tokugawa Japan:1600–1868l=https://brill.com/view/book/9789004212930/Bej.9781906876098.i-382_009.xml". {{cite web}}: Missing or empty |url= (help)
34. Maddison (27 July 2016). "Growth of World Population GDP and GDP Per Capita before 1820" (PDF). Retrieved 29 September 2017.
35. Avakov, p. 15; the figure is 10.1 million for all of modern European Russia, including the steppe and Caucasian polities that were not yet under the Tsardom of Russia's control.
36. Dale, Stephen Frederic (15 August 2002). Indian Merchants and Eurasian Trade, 1600–1750. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521525978. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
37. Wilson, p. 788
38. Charles A. Frazee, World History the Easy Way, Barron's Educational Series, ISBN 0-8120-9766-1, Google Print, 50
39. "European Population History". Retrieved 30 June 2016.
40. Li 1998, p. 160-171.
41. Lieberman, Victor B. (14 July 2014). Burmese Administrative Cycles: Anarchy and Conquest, c. 1580-1760. Princeton University Press. p. 18, 21. ISBN 978-1-4008-5585-8.
42. Lieberman, Victor B.; Victor, Lieberman (14 May 2014). Strange Parallels: Southeast Asia in Global Context, C 800-1830. Cambridge University Press. p. 52, 175. ISBN 978-0-511-65854-9.
43. Lieberman 2003: 52, 175
44. Lieberman 2003: 175
45. Lieberman 1984: 21
46. "It is suggested that the actual population of the Ahom territories up to the Manas ranged from two to three millions over one-and-a-half century ending 1750." Guha, Medieval Northeast India:Polity, Society and Economy, 1200-1750 A.D. pp. 26–30.
47. Chuluun, S. (2014). Mongols: XYII-early XX centuries.
48. Lieberman, Victor (2003). Strange Parallels: Volume 1, Integration on the Mainland: Southeast Asia in Global Context, c.800–1830 (Studies in Comparative World History) (Kindle ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 295. ISBN 978-0521800860. "Siam's population must have increased from c. 2,500,000 in 1600 to 4,000,000 in 1800."
49. Gregory Hanlon, "Twilight of a Military Tradition", 1997, p. 122.
50. Heywood, Linda M. (2009). "Slavery and Its Transformation in the Kingdom of Kongo: 1491-1800". The Journal of African History. 50 (1): 1–22. doi:10.1017/S0021853709004228. ISSN 0021-8537. JSTOR 40206695.
51. Crossley, Pamela Kyle; Siu, Helen F.; Sutton, Donald S. (2006-01-19). Empire at the Margins: Culture, Ethnicity, and Frontier in Early Modern China. University of California Press. ISBN 978-0-520-23015-6.
52. The combined population of Sweden (760,000), Finland (400,000), and Estonia (101,000). Avakov, p. 16.
53. "Historical Population of Scandinavia". Retrieved 15 April 2016.
54. "History of Iceland". Archived from the original on 27 February 2021. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
55. Grigg, D. B. (18 December 1980). Population Growth and Agrarian Change: An Historical Perspective. CUP Archive. ISBN 9780521296359. Retrieved 15 April 2016.
56. R. E. Tyson, "Population Patterns", in M. Lynch, ed., The Oxford Companion to Scottish History (New York, 2001), pp. 487–8.
57. Avakov, p. 17; population within the borders of all modern Malaysia (encompassing all these states' areas on the Malay peninsula plus a chunk of Borneo) is given as 191,000, while Singapore's is 3,000.
58. Magazine, Smithsonian; Hammer, Joshua. "The Hidden City of Myanmar". Smithsonian Magazine.
59. "The Lost City of Mrauk U, Once As Prosperous as London | Seasia.co". Good News from Southeast Asia. 23 January 2018.
60. "Nan Madol (U.S. National Park Service)". www.nps.gov.
61. West, Barbara A. (2008) Encyclopedia of the Peoples of Asia and Oceania Archived 2016-04-12 at the Wayback Machine. Infobase Publishing. p. 684. ISBN 0816071098

• Li, Tana (1998). Nguyen Cochinchina: Southern Vietnam in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries. Cornell University Press. ISBN 9781501732577.
• Kurt Witthauer. Bevölkerung der Erde (1958)
• Calendario atlante de Agostini, anno 99 (2003)
• The Columbia gazetteer of the world (1998)
• Britannica book of the year : world data (1997)