The population size of Lithuania (within contemporary borders) between 1897 and 1914

Abstract

Historians and historical demographers strongly disagree about the size of the population of Lithuania within contemporary borders in 1914. According to Soviet era sources, it was 2,828,000, while contemporary publications provide a figure of 3,350,500. The main difficulty is incongruity between the limits of administrative units of the Russian empire and the eastern border of independent Lithuania and its many changes between 1918 and 1940. For the first time, we provide an annual time series of the population of Lithuania from 1897 to 1914. According to our estimate, the population increased from 2,668,914 on 28 January 1897 to 3,057,126 by 1 January 1914.