Work and housing

In a period distinguished by rising population throughout the region, Carentoir’s population density rose in the eighteenth century to levels half as much again as those of Ruffiac and of Saint-Nicolas. The tiny parish of Le Temple, within eastern Carentoir, had an exceptionally high density: its annual average of baptisms in the latter half of the century is comparable to that of Saint-Nicolas, an area more than three times its size; and, judging from the number of households listed in 1784, its density must have been well over 100 inhabitants per km² (see below, p.200).