Historical Armenian population

Accurate or reliable data for historical populations of Armenians is scarce, but various scholars and institutions have proposed estimates for different periods.

For most recent data on Armenian populations, see Armenian population by country.

Ancient and medieval

According to the book Armenian National Atlas (2007), there were 2.5 to 3.5 million Armenians in the first century BC. The number of Armenians within the Armenian Highland rose to around 6 million by the 13th century, prior to the Mongol invasion of Armenia.[1]

Modern period

19th and early 20th century

In his 1847 book Lands of the Bible: Visited and Described, the Scottish missionary John Wilson estimated the total Armenian population at 2.5 million, with 1 million in the Russian Empire, 1 million in the Ottoman Empire and 0.5 million in Persia and "other distant lands." In the same book, he quoted the figures provided by Lucas Balthazar (Ղուկաս Պալդազարեան), the "intelligent editor" of the Smyrna-based Armenian newspaper The Dawn of Ararat («Արշալոյս Արարատեան», Arshaluys Araratian). Balthazar estimated 5 million Armenians overall, with 2 million in Russia, 2 million in Turkey and 1 million in Persia, India and elsewhere.[2]

The 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1875) cited Édouard Dulaurier's estimates c. 1850: "approximately four millions of Armenians in the world, of whom 2,500,000 were inhabitants of the Ottoman empire, 1,200,000 of the Russian empire, 25,000 in the empire of Austria, 150,000 in Persia and Azerbaijan, 25,000 in continental India and the Archipelago of Asia, and the remaining 100,000 scattered in various countries."[3]

In his 1862 book The Turkish Empire. In its Relations with Christianity and Civilization, Richard Robert Madden wrote that the Armenian population worldwide is estimated at 4 million, of whom an estimated 2,400,000 in the Ottoman Empire ("an approximate computation, and probably below the truth"), 900,000 in the Russian Empire, 600,000 in Persia, 40,000 in India and "other realms of Asia", and 60,000 in "various European countries."[4]

In his 1896 book Story of Turkey and Armenia Reverend James Wilson Pierce estimated 2.4 million Armenians in the Ottoman Empire, 1.25 million in the Russian Empire, 150,000 in Persia, 100,000 in Europe and 5,000 in the United States.[5]

Ottoman Empire

Russian Empire

According to the first Russian census of 1897, there were 1,173,096 Armenian-speakers in the empire.[6] The religious breakdown gave 1,179,241 "Armenian-Gregorians" (followers of the Armenian Apostolic Church) and 38,840 Catholic Armenians, amounting to a total of 1,218,081.[7] Estimates by John Foster Fraser (1907)[8] and Richard G. Hovannisian (2005)[9] put the number of Armenians within the Russian Empire in the early 20th century at around 2 million.

1911

Armenian population worldwide (Malachia Ormanian, 1911)

  Ottoman Empire (48.7%)

  Russian Empire (45%)

  Elsewhere (6.3%)

Malachia Ormanian, a scholar and former Armenian Patriarch of Constantinople, estimated the population of Christian Armenians by the dioceses of the Armenian Apostolic Church in his 1911 book The Church of Armenia.[10] It is the most detailed population distribution estimates available prior to the Armenian Genocide. Robert Hewsen wrote that "Ormanian's figures appear moderate and reasonable, although this does not necessarily make them precise."[11] Levon Marashlian notes that "the purpose of Ormanian's book was not to provide comprehensive population statistics" and that "his numbers for [Armenian] Protestants and Catholics may be even more incomplete" than for Armenian Apostolics.[12]

Country/territory	Armenians
Ottoman Empire	1,709,550
Russian Empire	1,579,500
Persia	83,400
United States	50,000
Western Europe ( Great Britain, France,  Belgium,   Switzerland)	21,000
Bulgaria	20,000
Egypt	15,500
Romania	10,000
Austria-Hungary	9,000
India & Indochina	6,000
Dutch East Indies	4,000
Greece	1,000
Total	3,508,950

1922

The 1922 US State Department document

The United States Department of State summarized the populations of Armenians in a November 1922 document titled "Approximate number of Armenians in the world" (NARA 867.4016/816). Of the total 3,004,000 Armenians, 817,873 were refugees from Turkey "based upon information furnished by the British Embassy, Constantinople, and by the agents of the Near East Relief Society, in 1921. The total given does not include the able-bodied Armenians, who are retained by the Kemalists, nor the women and children,—approximately 95,000,—according to the League of Nations-who have been forced to embrace Islam."

Country	Armenians
Soviet Union	2,195,000
— Armenian SSR	1,200,000
— Georgian SSR	400,000
— Azerbaijan SSR	340,000
— Transcaspia	30,000
— rest of Soviet Russia	225,000
Ottoman Empire	281,000
USA &  Canada	125,000
Syria, Palestine and Mesopotamia	104,000
Greece & Cyprus	79,000
Persia	50,000
Bulgaria	46,000
Romania	43,000
Central and Western Europe	38,000
Egypt, Sudan and Abyssinia	28,000
India, Java and  Australia	12,000
Argentina	3,000
Total	3,004,000

1966

The following estimates were originally published on 4 December 1966 in the Yerevan-based weekly Hayreniki dzayn («Հայրենիքի ձայն») of Soviet Armenia's Committee for Cultural Relations with Armenians Abroad. They were cited by Richard Hrair Dekmejian in the journal Soviet Studies in 1968[13] and by David Marshall Lang and Christopher J. Walker in 1976 in Minority Rights Group's entry on Armenians.[14]

Country	Armenians
Soviet Union	3,500,000
— Armenian SSR	2,000,000
— Azerbaijani SSR	560,000
— Georgian SSR	550,000
— Russian SFSR	330,000
— rest of USSR	60,000
USA &  Canada	450,000
Turkey	250,000
Iran	200,000
France	200,000
Lebanon	180,000
Syria	150,000
rest of the world	570,000
Total	5,500,000

Soviet republics (1926–1989)

Precise figures are available for the number of Armenians in the Soviet Union and its constituent republics because all censuses in the USSR enumerated people by ethnicity.

Republic	1926[15]	1939[16]	1959[17]	1970[18]	1979[19]	1989[20]
Soviet Union	1,567,568	2,152,860	2,786,912	3,559,151	4,151,241	4,623,232
Armenian SSR	743,571	1,061,997	1,551,610	2,208,327	2,724,975	3,083,616
Azerbaijan SSR	282,004	388,025	442,089	483,520	475,486	390,505
Georgian SSR	313,741	415,013	442,916	452,309	448,000	437,211
Russian SFSR	195,410	218,156	255,978	298,718	364,570	532,390
Uzbek SSR	14,976	20,394	27,370	34,470	42,374	50,537
Ukrainian SSR	10,631	21,688	28,024	33,439	38,646	54,200
Turkmen SSR	13,859	15,996	19,696	23,054	26,605	31,829
Kazakh SSR		7,777	9,284	12,518	14,022	19,119
Tajik SSR		1,272	2,878	3,787	4,861	5,651
Kirghiz SSR		728	1,919	2,688	3,285	3,975
Byelorussian SSR	99	1,814	1,751	2,362	2,751	4,933
Moldavian SSR			1,218	1,336	1,953	2,873
Latvian SSR			1,060	1,511	1,913	3,069
Lithuanian SSR			471	508	955	1,655
Estonian SSR			648	604	845	1,669

1986 Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia, Volume XIII ("Soviet Armenia"), 1987[21] Country Armenians  Soviet Union 4,500,000 Armenian SSR 2,755,000[lower-alpha 1] Azerbaijani SSR 475,000 Georgian SSR 448,000 Russian SFSR 365,000 Outside the USSR 2,300,000  United States 800,000  France 350,000  Lebanon 200,000  Iran 200,000  Turkey 180,000[lower-alpha 2]  Syria 120,000  Argentina 75,000  Canada 55,000  Bulgaria 25,000  Iraq 25,000  Australia 25,000  Brazil 22,000  Uruguay 14,000  England 12,000  Kuwait 11,000  Egypt 10,000  Greece 10,000  Romania 5,000  Belgium 5,000   Switzerland 5,000  UAE 5,000  Jordan 4,000  Netherlands 3,000  Venezuela 2,500  Cyprus 2,000  Jerusalem 2,000  Italy 2,000  Sudan 1,000  Ethiopia 800  India 500 Total 7,000,000

2012 Armenia Encyclopedia, 2012[22] Country Armenians  Russia 2,250,000–2,500,000  United States 1,000,000–1,500,000  France 500,000–600,000  Georgia 250,000–400,000  Ukraine 130,000  Poland 92,000  Turkey 80,000  Iran 70,000–80,000  Lebanon 70,000–80,000  Greece 70,000–80,000  Syria 65,000–70,000  Argentina 70,000  Canada 60,000–65,000  Germany 50,000–60,000  Uzbekistan 50,000  Bulgaria 50,000  Spain 45,000–80,000  Brazil 35,000–40,000  Turkmenistan 30,000  Belarus 30,000  Kazakhstan 25,000  Israel 21,000  Iraq 20,000  Uruguay 20,000  UK 18,000  Hungary 15,000  Netherlands 12,000  Belgium 10,000  Czechia 10,000  Egypt 8,500   Switzerland 5,000  Sweden 5,000–6,000  Kuwait 5,000  Austria 4,000  Venezuela 3,500  Moldova 2,000–4,000 Country Armenians  Jordan 3,000  Tajikistan 3,000  Latvia 3,000  Kyrgyzstan 3,000  Cyprus 3,000–3,500  Italy 3,000  Lithuania 2,500  UAE 2,000  Estonia 2,000  Romania 2,000  Chile 1,600  Ecuador 1,500  Finland 1,000  Norway 1,000  Albania 500–700  Mexico 560  Bahrain 400  South Africa 300  Malta 300  New Zealand 200  Portugal 200  Colombia 200  Monaco 200  India 200  Ireland 150  Ethiopia 100  Dominican Republic 80  Nigeria 60  China 50–60  Japan 50–60  Singapore 50  Costa Rica 40  Peru 40  Zimbabwe 30  South Korea 25  Zambia 20  Iceland 20  Luxembourg 10

See also

• Historical Jewish population comparisons

References

Notes

1. 89.7% of 3,072,000 (as of 1979)
2. Additionally, over 1,000,000 Islamized Armenians

Citations

1. Հայաստանի ազգային ատլաս` հատոր Ա [Armenian National Atlas. Volume I] (in Armenian). Yerevan: Center of Geodesy and Cartography. 2007. p. 96.
2. Wilson, John (1847). The Lands of the Bible: Visited and Described in an Extensive Journey Undertaken with Special Reference to the Promotion of Biblical Research and the Advancement of the Cause of Philanthropy, Vol. II. London: William Whyte & Co. pp. 479-480.
3. Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, Volume II. Edinburgh: Adam and Charles Black. 1875. p. 548.
4. Madden, Richard Robert (1862). The Turkish Empire: In Its Relations with Christianity and Civilization, Volume 2. London: T. Cautley Newby. p. 121.
5. Pierce, James Wilson (1896). Story of Turkey and Armenia. Baltimore: R. H. Woodward Company. p. 14.
6. "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по родному языку, губерниям и областям [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897 Population distribution by native language, provinces and regions]". demoscope.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 23 October 2020.
7. "Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. Распределение населения по вероисповеданиям и регионам [The first general census of the population of the Russian Empire in 1897 Distribution of the population by faith and region]". demoscope.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 5 November 2010.
8. Fraser, John Foster (1907). Red Russia. New York: The John Lane Company. p. 212. ...the Armenians , intellectual superiors of the peoples south of the Caucasus range, number about two millions...
9. Hovannisian, R. G. (2005). "Genocide and independence, 1914-21". In Herzig, Edmund; Kurkchiyan, Marina (eds.). The Armenians: Past and Present in the Making of National Identity. London: Routledge. p. 90. ISBN 9781135798376.
10. Ormanian, Malachia (1911). Հայոց եկեղեցին և իր պատմութիւնը, վարդապետութիւնը, վարչութիւնը, բարեկարգութիւնը, արաողութիւնը, գրականութիւն, ու ներկայ կացութիւնը [The Church of Armenia: her history, doctrine, rule, discipline, liturgy, literature, and existing condition] (in Armenian). Constantinople. pp. 259–267.
11. Hewsen, Robert (2003). "Summit of The Earth: The Historical Geography of Bardzr Hayk". In Hovannisian, Richard G. (ed.). Armenian Karin/Erzerum. Mazda Publishers. p. 49. ISBN 1-56859-151-9.
12. Marashlian, Levon (1991). Politics and Demography: Armenians, Turks, and Kurds in the Ottoman Empire. Zoryan Institute. p. 59. ISBN 9780916431303.
13. Dekmejian, R. H. (1968). "Soviet‐Turkish relations and politics in the Armenian SSR". Soviet Studies. 19 (4): 520–521. doi:10.1080/09668136808410616.
14. "The world upward trend is further confirmed by the break-down given in 1966 by the Erevan periodical Hayreniki Dzayn (summarized by Dekmejian in Soviet Studies of Glasgow University, 1968). Here we find a world-wide total of five and a half million Armenians, sub-divided as follows..."; quoted in Lang, David Marshall; Walker, Christopher J. (1987) [1976]. The Armenians (PDF). Minority Rights Group. p. 12. ISBN 0-946690-43-X. Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 September 2019.
15. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1926 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
16. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1939 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
17. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1959 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
18. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1970 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
19. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1979 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
20. "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР". demoscope.ru. Archived from the original on 8 September 2019.
21. Eremian, Suren (1987). "Հայերը [Armenians]". Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia Volume XIII: (in Armenian). Yerevan. pp. 27.
22. Ayvazyan, Hovhannes, ed. (2012). "Հայերի թիվն աշխարհում՝ ըստ երկրների [Armenians in the world, by country]". Հայաստան Հանրտագիտական [Armenia Encyclopedia] (in Armenian). Yerevan: National Academy of Sciences of Armenia. p. 914. ISBN 978-5-89700-040-1.

Further reading

• Voskanian, Armenak (1985). Սփյուռքահայության թվական կազմը (Number of Armenians abroad), Lraber Hasarakakan Gitutyunneri, No. 9 . pp. 47–51. ISSN 0320-8117