ABSTRACT
Population growth in Portugal followed a similar pattern to that of other Western European countries. Information of natality, however, is provided by the 1801 enumeration of both population and households and this can be supplemented by a survey of 1819, which covered 24 of the 44 comarcas, or approximately 53 per cent of the total population. Statistical information on mortality, however, is even less abundant for the nineteenth century than in the case of fertility. The general economic progress of the country is most clearly evident in the case of infant mortality, which is susceptible among other factors to relative income levels. A similar trend, however, is also evident in relation to foetal mortality, which fell from 32 to 18.4 per 1,000 during the same period. Regional variations are also very strong in the case of these indices, which effectively reflect the marked asymmetry of the socio-economic pattern of development.
