ABSTRACT
Table 3.1 Number of cities with at least 10,000 inhabitants, by territory, 1500-1800
Territory 1500 1550 1600 1650 1700 1750 1800
1 Scandinavia 1 1 2 2 2 3 6 2 England and Wales 5 4 6 8 11 21 44 3 Scotland 1 1 1 1 2 5 8 4 Ireland 0 0 0 1 3 3 8 5 Netherlands 11 12 19 19 20 18 19 6 Belgium 12 12 12 14 15 15 20
7 Germany 23 27 30 23 30 35 53 8 France 32 34 43 44 55 55 78 9 Switzerland 1 1 2 2 3 4 4
10 Northern Italy 21 22 30 19 22 29 33 11 Central Italy 9 9 9 11 10 11 11 12 Southern Italy 14 15 20 20 19 25 30 13 Spain 20 27 37 24 22 24 34 14 Portugal 1 4 5 5 5 5 5
15 Austria-Bohemia 3 3 3 3 4 6 8 16 Poland 0 1 1 1 1 2 3
Region 1-6 North and west 30 30 40 45 53 65 105 7 - 9 Central 56 62 75 69 88 95 135
10-14 Mediterranean 65 77 101 79 78 94 113 15-16 Eastern 3 4 4 4 5 7 11
Europe 154 173 220 197 224 261 364
as a consequence it left unaltered the historic predominance of the old urbanized core of ‘Roman’ Europe. In 1600, just as a century earlier, 71 per cent of all cities above the 10,000 population threshold were located south of the Rhine-Danube line.
