The predominance of the rural over the urban world in Guadalajara was overwhelming until a few decades ago. The present-day province had its homonymous city which, according to counts, never concentrated more than 3.8% of the population; its towns, villages and farmhouses always housed more than 95% of its inhabitants. The traditional division of the territory is made up of four comarcas: La Campiña, La Sierra, La Alcarria and Molina de Aragón. From the end of the 16th century, census figures reveal the marked demographic weakness of Guadalajara: from 1591 to 1860, the provincial population grew at an insignificant rate of 0.06%. In the two and a half centuries, the movement of the provincial rate of baptisms allows us to distinguish two phases: a downward trend culminating in the War of Succession and a phase of mild recovery from the end of the conflict until 1860. Between 1591 and 1860, population growth rates were very low or negative in La Alcarria and La Campiña, while in the two remaining counties they reached 0.20%, densely populated territories at the end of the 16th century. From the beginning of the 17th century to the mid-19th century, the provincial population tended to reduce its unequal spatial distribution. La Alcarria and La Campiña went from 74.4% in 1591 to 59.1% in 1860. However, the different counts allow us to examine the behaviour of the population of the province and its comarcas: from 1591 to 1752, the number of inhabitants fell by 40.3% in La Campiña; 21.3% in La Alcarria and 17.6% in the province, despite an increase of 16% in La Sierra and 28.5% in Molina de Aragón.

Collection: Statistics

Project: 3. Rural world and urban world in the formation of the European identity., 4. Family, daily life and social inequality in Europe.

Chronology: XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX

Scope: Secondary Education, Baccalaureate, University

Link: https://www.historiaagraria.com/FILE/articulos/HA57__Llopis-Sebastian-Velasco.pdf

Resource type: Statistics

Format: Table

Source: Llopis Agelán, Enrique, Sebastián Amarilla, José Antonio y Velasco Sánchez, Ángel Luis, «La debilidad demográfica de un territorio de la España interior. La población de Guadalajara, 1530–1860», Historia Agraria, 57 (2012), pp. 13–45.

Language: Spanish

Date: 2012

Owner: Álvaro Romero González (Modernalia)

Copyright: © Enrique Llopis Agelan, ©José Antonio Sebastián Amarilla, ©Ángel Luis Velasco Sánchez © Revista de Historia Agraria

Abstract: Evolution of the number of inhabitants in the province of Guadalajara between 1530 and 1860

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