10-05-2012, 03:57 PM
Quote:Colin McEvedy and Richard Jones, Atlas of World Population History (Penguin, 1978) has some handy figures from early censi but I would ignore their estimates of ancient populations. They have curious conclusions...
Theirs is the lowest count I know of, 44 million for the entire Roman Empire, but since they are also about the only ones who provide a breakdown by province, their figures are still used. Recently, Maddison has used them for calculating comparative wealth, with surprising results: Income and population distribution: Europe, Asia, Africa
Maddison's Contours of World Economy, 2007, pp. 32ff. offers a fairly detailed, yet concise discussion of Roman demography related to economic performance.
Stefan (Literary references to the discussed topics are always appreciated.)
