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Urban Opportunities
Table 7.1 Population in the Parish of Tomaj 1700−1780
Year Population Annual growth rate (% )
(a) (b) (a) (b)
. .
. .
. .
. .
Notes (a) estimate based on 1 birth for every 22.9 inhabitants, (b) estimate based on the
natural balance. šak, žat, mkk 1663−1708, 1708−1737, 1738−1761, 1762−1784, 1785−1790.
the natural balance are compiled for comparison. This calculation is also
imperfect since it does not consider migration, specifically the emigration
balance, which was predominant in the case of Tomaj, thus potentially in-
flating the actual population numbers. Until the mid-1720s, original data
on births and deaths are scarce, which led to a lump-sum estimate of the
1700 population as the most likely long-term average of the seventeenth-
century population size. Consequently, the data in both columns are rough
approximations, yet they adequately illustrate the growth trends in the
parish of Tomaj up to the 1780s.
A new historical chapter in the demography of the Tomaj area, begin-
ning in the early eighteenth century, is characterized by more stable birth
dynamics. Moreover, in the initial decades of the eighteenth century, no
significant mortality peaks occurred, resulting in slow population growth.
However, in the 1720s and 1730s, there was a notable increase in the num-
ber of births, marking a phase of accelerated demographic increase. As
mentioned, estimates based on birth rates yield lower results than ac-
tual figures, indicating that the population from 1740 onwards was reli-
ably higher than indicated in column (a). During the period from 1720 to
1740, in particular, the birth rate presents a distorted picture, as the actual
growth rate was undoubtedly significantly higher, as indicated by the nat-
ural growth rate in column (b). Consequently, the growth rate in the years
1740 to 1760 was slightly lower than shown in column (a), but the popu-
lation experienced significant growth during this period. Growth slowed
down in the following twenty years, particularly in the 1760s, when there
were noticeable peaks in mortality. By 1780, the actual population of the
parish was likely closer to the figure in column (b) than to that in col-
umn (a).
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