Demographics of the Ottoman Empire

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

Population size

Demographic data for the 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 5000 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.^[1]

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, Armenians, Bulgarians, Catholics, Jews, Protestants, Latins, Syriacs and Gypsies.^[2][3]

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). 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.

1520	1566	1683	1831	1856	The Administrative reform				1881-1893	1905–1906		1919
11692480[4]	15000000[5]	30000000[6]	7230660[4]	35350000[4]	region	map	vilayet	sanjaks	17388604[4]	20884000[4]	20975345[7]	14629000
Before Administrative reform
						link	Bosnia Vilayet				N	N
							Crete Province					N
							Cyprus Eyalet					N
							Danube Vilayet					N
							Eastern Rumelia Province					N
							Herzegovina Vilayet					N
							Janina Province					N
							Kosovo Province					N
							Monastir Province				Region Lost	N
						link	Salonica Province				Region Lost	N
							Scutari Province
							Tripolitania Province					N
						link	Aegean Archipelago Province
							Hejaz Province
						link	Adrianople Province				604866 Muslim:360411 Greek:224680 Armenian:19775 Jew: Others:	N
					Western		vilayet Dardanelles				160927 Muslim:149903 Greek:8550 Armenian:2474 Jew: Others:
					Western		Istanbul	sanjak of Uskudar			861786 Muslim:568154 Greek:205752 Armenian:87880 Jew: Others: 57681 Muslim:20048 Greek:36791 Armenian:842 Jew: Others:
					Asia Minor		İzmit		218625 Muslim:129175 Greek:40795 Armenian:48655 Jew: Others:		222759 Muslim:126859 Greek:40048 Armenian:55852 Jew: Others:
						link	İzmir Vilayet	sanjaks of Manisa İzmir Aydın Denizli Mentese	1316722 Muslim:1093334 Greek:208283 Armenian:15105 Jew: Others:		1568451 Muslim:1249067 Greek:299097 Armenian:20287 Jew: Others: 285721 Muslim:277659 Greek:632 Armenian:7430 Jew: Others: 160027 Muslim:149003 Greek:8550 Armenian:2474 Jew: Others:
						link	Bursa Vilayet	sanjaks of Balıkesir Bursa Erdogrul Kütahya Afyon	1636297 Muslim:1296595 Greek:250711 Armenian:88991 Jew: Others:		316649 Muslim:303348 Greek:8753 Armenian:4548 Jew: Others: 609160 Muslim:474114 Greek:74927 Armenian:60119 Jew: Others: 151883 Muslim:140678 Greek:2613 Armenian:8592 Jew: Others: 465934 Muslim:359804 Greek:97497 Armenian:8633 Jew: Others:
						link	Konya Vilayet	sanjaks of Burdur Hamid abad Atalya Konya Nigde	1071900 Muslim:989200 Greek:82700 Armenian:0 Jew: Others:		788833 Muslim:750712 Greek:25150 Armenian:12971 Jew: Others: 248877 Muslim:235762 Greek:12485 Armenian:630 Jew: Others: 289448 Muslim:227100 Greek:58312 Armenian:4036 Jew: Others:
						link	Kastamonu Vilayet	sanjaks of Bolu Çankırı Kastamonu Sinop	1016833 Muslim:992679 Greek:21507 Armenian:2647 Jew: Others:		397332 Muslim:389261 Greek:5101 Armenian:2970 Jew: Others: 767199 Muslim:737302 Greek:20938 Armenian:8959 Jew: Others:
						link	Ankara Vilayet	sanjaks of Ankara Kırşehir Yozgat Kayseri	891426 Muslim:763119 Greek:34009 Armenian:94298 Jew: Others:		949059 Muslim:877283 Greek:20240 Armenian:51536 Jew: Others: 241064 Muslim:184292 Greek:26598 Armenian:30174 Jew: Others:
						link	Adana Vilayet	sanjaks of Icel (Mersin) Adana Kozan Osmaniye	301650 Muslim:158000 Greek:46200 Armenian:97450 Jew: Others:		104882 Muslim:102034 Greek:2507 Armenian:341 Jew: Others: 403527 Muslim:341903 Greek:8974 Armenian:52650 Jew: Others: 221292 Muslim:188916 Greek:54 Armenian:32322 Jew: Others:
						link	Trebizond Vilayet	sanjaks of Samsun Trabzon Gümüşhane Lazistan	1046900 Muslim:806700 Greek:193000 Armenian:47200 Jew: Others:		1121592 Muslim:921128 Greek:161574 Armenian:38890 Jew: Others: 892208 Muslim:765950 Greek:98739 Armenian:27519 Jew: Others:
						link	Sivas Vilayet	sanjaks of Sivas Tokat Amasya Şebinkarahisar	1086036 Muslim:839515 Greek:76088 Armenian:170433 Jew: Others:		1162086 Muslim:939733 Greek:75324 Armenian:147029 Jew: Others:
						link	Erzurum Vilayet		639474 Muslim:500782 Greek:3725 Armenian:134967 Jew: Others:		812538 Muslim:673297 Greek:4864 Armenian:134377 Jew: Others:
						link	Bitlis Vilayet	sanjaks of Muş Genç Siirt	385510 Muslim:254000 Greek:210 Armenian:131300 Jew: Others:		427491 Muslim:309999 Greek: Armenian:117492 Jew: Others:
							Diyâr-ı Bekr Vilayet	sanjak of Diyarbakır and the mutasarrifate of Zor	575814 Muslim:505446 Greek:650 Armenian:67718 Jew: Others:		559886 Muslim:492101 Greek:1935 Armenian:65850 Jew: Others: 65947 Muslim:65770 Greek:45 Armenian:132 Jew: Others:
							Mamure-ul-Azil Vilayet		417212 Muslim:328644 Greek:94400 Armenian:79128 Jew: Others:		166104 Muslim:149384 Greek:2 Armenian:16718 Jew: Others: 527371 Muslim:446579 Greek:971 Armenian:79821 Jew: Others:
						link	Van Vilayet	sanjaks of Van Hakkari	320998 Muslim:241000 Greek:0 Armenian:79998 Jew: Others:		247173 Muslim:179380 Greek:1 Armenian:67792 Jew: Others:
					Ottoman Syria	link	Aleppo Vilayet	(Haleb [Halep])	815898 Muslim:729449 Greek:48450 Armenian:37999 Jew: Others:		639117 Muslim:576320 Greek:21954 Armenian:40843 Jew: Others:	Region Lost
							Deir ez-Zor Province					Region Lost
							Beirut Province					Region Lost
							Syria Province[8]					Region Lost
					Ottoman Iraq	link	Mosul Province	(from 1879) sanjaks of Mosul Sehrizor (Kirkuk) Suleymaniyeh				Region Lost
							Baghdad Province					Region Lost
							Basra Province					Region Lost
							Tunis Eyalet					N
				9734405[9]			Khedivate of Egypt

Population maps

• Population maps
• 

  1893-96, Armenian population

• 

  1914, Armenian population.

Special Reports

During the World War I; The treatment of Armenians in the Ottoman Empire was a book by Viscount Bryce and Arnold J. Toynbee which compiled statements from eyewitnesses from other countries including Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Switzerland, who similarly attested to Armenians in the Ottoman Empire during 1915-1916. The publication presents Arnold J. Toynbee's analysis on Armenian population in the Ottoman Empire. A summary table of his analysis included in the page page 199. In the "vilayet of Van", there were two portions, portions in modern use corresponds to county. As explained by Arnold J. Toynbee in the footprint at page 199, he developed his analysis by excluding certain portions of the province where he said "Armenians were a minor". Arnold Toynbee in finding the ratio of Armenians in vilayet of Van; he removed the values originating from portions of Van (listed in the foot print) where Armenians were in minority. The presented table in page 1999 shows the re-calculated values by Arnold J. Toynbee of these selected provinces using values of the parts (counties, sanjacks) which Armenians were not in minority. The presented map shows the re-calculated values of the stated provinces using values where Armenians are not in minority.

• 

  Ethnic values of the Six vilayets according to presented data.

• 

  Ethnic map of the Six vilayets according to presented data.

See also

• Subdivisions of the Ottoman Empire

Articles discussing the demographics of the Ottoman Empire:

• Demographics of Turkey
• Ottoman Armenian population
• History of the Jews in the Ottoman Empire
• Demographics of Kosovo

References

1. ^ Behar, Cem, ed. 1996. Osmanlı Đmparatorluğu'nun ve Türkiye'nin nüfusu, 1500-1927. Ankara: T.C. Basbakanlık Devlet Đstatistik Enstitüsü = State Institute of Statistics Prime Ministry Republic of Turkey.
2. ^ (Karpat & 1978 pp.237-274)
3. ^ (Shaw & 1978 p.323-338)
4. ^ ^{a b c d e} Kabadayı p3
5. ^ (Kinross & 1979 p. 206)
6. ^ (Kinross & 1979 p. 281)
7. ^ (Shaw 1977, pp. 239–241)
8. ^ Damascus
9. ^ McCarthy J. 1976. Nineteenth-Century Egyptian Population. Middle Eastern Studies 12.3: 1–39; Panzac D. 1987. The Population of Egypt in the Nineteenth Century. Asian and African Studies 21: 11–32.

Bibliography

• Shaw, Stanford Jay; Shaw, Ezel Kural (1977). History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey. Cambridge University Press. 
• Shaw, Stanford. 1978. The Ottoman Census System and Population, 1831-1914. International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (9):323-338.
• Karpat, Kemal. 1978. Ottoman Population Records and the Census of 1881/82-1893. International Journal of Middle Eastern Studies (9):237-274.
• L. Kinross, The Ottoman Centuries: The Rise and Fall of the Turkish Empire, 1979
• M. Kabadayı, Inventory for the Ottoman Empire / Turkish Republic 1500–2000 [1]