ABSTRACT
A fundamental factor behind the economic and social crisis which hit France in the midnineteenth century was the increase in the country’s population. According to official figures, the population of France increased as follows:1
Year Total 1801 27,349,631 1806 29,107,425 1821 30,461,875 1826 31,858,937 1831 32,509,223 1836 32,540,910 1841 34,230,178 1846 35,400,486
The annual rate of increase was not uniform, the highest level (approximately 6.7 per cent) being reached in the years 1816 to 1825 and 1841 to 1845.2 Geographically, there were also significant variations. Departments with the highest population increases included those with large urban centres, notably the departments of the Seine (Paris), the Bouches-du-Rhône (Marseilles), the Rhône (Lyons), Loire-Inférieure (Nantes), the Nord (Lille), the Haute-Garonne (Toulouse) and the Bas-Rhin (Strasbourg). On the other hand, some departments without large population centres, such as the Ardèche, Corsica, the Hautes-Pyrénées and the Pyrénées-Orientales, also experienced significant population increases. In a few departments, populations were static or even at times declining, such as Calvados, the Eure, the Gers, the Jura, the Lot, Lot-et-Garonne, the Meuse, the Orne, and Tarn-et-Garonne. In general, the Paris, Lyons and Marseilles regions, and the northeast of France, were the most densely populated areas, while the Alpine region was the least densely populated.
