Population of Lithuania: number and composition

The Baltic states have always been a territory for which wars were often waged. It is not surprising that over the past 500 years, it has passed from hand to hand many times, and the territory of the states that settled here has always been inhabited by many peoples.

Lithuania is no exception. Of course, the population of Lithuania was almost always represented by the titular nation, but other peoples lived there permanently. To date, the situation is similar. In this article you will find information about how the composition and population in the territory of this state changed.

From ancient times ...

The first census in these parts was attempted in the 13th century, but it ended in almost nothing, since the collected data were very approximate. Only in 1790 a normal census company was conducted, according to the results of which it turned out that in the territory of modern Lithuania there were about 3.6 million people. From 1812 to 1945, the population of Lithuania decreased by about 30%.

The beginning of the 19th century

In 1897 another estimate of the number was carried out. According to its results, it turned out that for that period in Lithuania there were about 1 924 400 people. For those times, this result was very impressive.

Strange as it may seem, but at that time Lithuanians themselves were few in Lithuania. Their share was then only 61.6%. In addition, there were at least 13% of Jews living in the country, 9% of Poles, about 5% of Russians, and a similar number of Belarusians and Germans. The number of Latvians was less than one and a half percent, while the proportion of Tatars did not exceed 0.2%.

Even more interesting is the fact that in any major city the number of Lithuanians in percentage terms was even lower. So, in Vilna lived no more than 41% of Jews, no less than 30% of Poles, and the share of Russians and Belarusians was about 24%. The Lithuanians themselves in the city lived no more than 2% of the total population.

In Covno the situation was approximately the same: the Jews here were about 35%, the number of Russians, Belarusians and Poles was 36%, Lithuanians were 6.6%. All the rest are Germans. By the way, in Klaipeda almost the entire population was German. This is due to the fact that this part of East Prussia became part of Lithuania only at the end of the 18th century. Only in the Suvalk province the number of Lithuanian population reached 72%.

Remarks on ethnogenesis

We hasten to note that at that time the process of ethnogenesis was still going on in leaps and bounds: in addition to 1 210 000 Lithuanians themselves, 448 thousand Zhmudins also lived in the Russian Empire. Without them, the indigenous population of Lithuania was only 44%. This contrasts sharply with the data of the frankly populist statements of some Baltic politicians about the "age-old quantitative superiority of the Lithuanian population."

The beginning of the 20th century

By the beginning of the twentieth century, the situation with the "indigenous" peoples was aggravated to an even greater extent.

By 1914, the share of the Russian population had risen to 6%, while the number of Lithuanians had decreased to 54% at once, in percentage terms. In the eastern part of the country, their share fell to 30%. The situation changed only after the First World War, when more than 300,000 Russian-speaking residents emigrated from the country. In addition, in those years there was a significant influx of Lithuanians from other countries, which was associated with the creation of an independent Republic of Lithuania.

Before World War II

In 1923, the population of Lithuania was already 2,028,971 people. Compared with 1897, the proportion of Lithuanians themselves has grown to 84-85%. The number of Jews decreased almost twofold, amounting to 7.5% (153,473 people). Poles in the territory of the state lived already 3.2%, or 65 599 people, Russian was only 2.5% (50 460 people), the number of Germans rapidly (due to deportations and terror) decreased to 1.4% (29 231) , Belarusians remained no more than 0.2% (4421). Other nationalities in those years there were about 8771 people.

Thus, the composition of the population of Lithuania at that time was very multinational.

Other changes in the national composition

In Kaunas, which became the capital of an independent republic, there were even more fundamental changes. So, Poles and Russians, who were practically the backbone of the urban population, practically did not remain (less than 8 thousand people). The number of Germans was 3.5%, Jews became 27.1% (25 041 people). But the number of Lithuanians has grown to 54 thousand people (59% of the city's population).

The census in the Klaipeda region, conducted by local authorities in 1925, showed that the number of Lithuanians does not exceed 26.6% of the total population (no more than 37 626 people). There were many Germans, whose share was about 41.9% (59 337), the people of Memel with their 24.2% (34 337), and other nationalities.

Memelians - who are they?

By the way, who are these people? To date, a number of prominent academic historians believe that this term was understood to mean a certain number of people of different (!) Nationalities who did not accept the independence of Lithuania and the formation of the republic. Some historians believe that these are descendants of Germans from East Prussia, who were not assimilated after the transfer of their lands to Lithuania, did not accept the language and customs of the Balts.

Most likely, this is true, because practically all ethnographers note the fact that in places populated by the Memelians, the grandiose influence of German culture and language was felt. Thus, by counting the population in Lithuania of those years, these nuances should be kept in mind. It is likely that the actual share of the German population of these regions reached up to 66% in those years, exceeding the mark of 90 thousand people.

In the Vilna region there was a similar situation, but already with respect to the Poles. The matter is that this land several times passed from Lithuania to Poland, and the Poles led a conscious colonization, which presupposed the maximum displacement of other nations or their assimilation (most often - forcibly).

Thus, in Lithuania, the "sample" of the 1920s, Lithuanians themselves accounted for slightly more than 60% of the total population of these lands. The total population of Lithuania was approaching 1 million 900 thousand (at the beginning of 1930).

From 1939 to 1970

In 1940, Lithuania became part of the USSR. The reverse process began, when the Poles were replaced by the Lithuanian population. During the German occupation, the number of Polish citizens again begins to increase. So, in 1942 in the Vilnius region alone there were 309,494 Lithuanians, and the number of Poles grew to 324,757 people.

The fate of the Jewish population is sad. Only in the territory of Lithuania were killed 136 421 people of this nationality (and this - without taking into account a couple of areas). Survived no more than 20 thousand people. This is also evidenced by the 1959 census, according to which only 24,672 Jews remained in Lithuania.

German statistics from 1937 numbered on the country's territory 157 527 people who belonged to this nationality. Thus, during the entire period of the German occupation, at least 175,000 Jews were killed, and by the year 1941 there were 225,000 Jews in Lithuania.

About post-war agreements

In 1945-1946, 178 thousand Poles were expelled from the country. If we take the period from 1945 to 1950, half of the Polish population left Lithuania. If we talk about the re-Russification, even Lithuanian researchers recognize that during the Soviet times it proceeded very slowly, slightly changing the national composition of the state. So, in 1959-1989, the number of Russians increased to just 9.4%, while some Belarusians and Ukrainians made up 1.2% of the total population.

By 1991, the number of Lithuanians is approaching 79.6%, and the population of Lithuania is 3 million 666 thousand people. Speaking of the general tendency of the Union republics, Lithuania was perhaps the only example of how the number of the titular nation increased: even the number of Russians in the central regions of the RSFSR fell to 81%, although it was 85%.

New time

So what kind of population in Lithuania prevailed (significantly) at the time of the collapse of the USSR? Of course, Lithuanian. With this simple argument, Russian researchers have been trying to convince their Baltic colleagues that there was no "occupation" for a year now. However, so far without much success.

How did the population of Lithuania change after the death of the USSR ? The dynamics are extremely deplorable. Immediately after 1991-1993, more than 300,000 Russians left from its territory. If by 1991 there were almost four million people in the country, today the population has decreased by almost one and a half times!

Not surprisingly, the population of Lithuania for 2014 is 2 million 900 thousand people. It seems that this is not so little. Although there is one "but". The fact is that the government of the country adds to this number almost all Lithuanians from other EU countries, using even the Internet voting at the census. Young people leave the country en masse, so independent experts agree on one thing: according to unofficial information, the population of Lithuania for 2014 is a maximum of 2 million people.

Most likely, the dynamics of intensive population decline will continue for the coming years.