The population of Denmark, 1660–1960

Abstract

The most important sources for the study of population trends in Denmark from 1660 to 1801 are the somewhat crude but fairly well preserved Census of Peasants¹ (compiled in the autumn of 1660), the incomplete census of 1769,² and the very reliable population census of 1801.³ If the reliability of the first two of these censuses can be evaluated and their defects remedied, it ought to be possible to verify the pattern of demographic development in the intervening period parish by parish, herred by herred or province by province, by reference to parish registers and records of births and deaths. For it may be assumed that the aggregate growth of the kingdom's population did not significantly exceed the aggregate excess of births over deaths.