{{Short description|none}} The '''population of the Byzantine Empire''' encompassed all ethnic and tribal groups living there, mainly Byzantine Greeks, but also Albanians, Armenians, Assyrians, Bulgarians, Goths, Kartvelians, Latini, Levantine Arabs, Serbs and Croats, Thracians, Thraco-Romans, Illyro-Romans, Tzans, Vlachs and other groups. It fluctuated throughout the state's millennial history. The reign of the Emperor Justinian I in the mid-sixth century was the high point of the empire's expansion;<ref>{{harvnb|James|2010|p=3}}</ref> however, the arrival of plague in 541 AD and its subsequent recurrences caused a severe depletion of the population.<ref>{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=196}}</ref> After the reign of Emperor Heraclius ({{reign|610|641|era=AD}}) and the loss of the empire's overseas territories, Byzantium was limited to the Balkans and Anatolia. When the empire began to recover after a series of conflicts in the 8th century and its territories stabilized, its population began to recover. By the end of the 8th century the population of the empire was around 7,000,000, a figure that climbed to over 12,000,000 people by 1025 AD.<ref name="Tread570">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=570}}.</ref> The numbers began falling steadily to 9,000,000 people at 1204 AD and even lower to 5,000,000 people at 1282 AD with the arrival of the Turks.<ref name="Tread700">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=700}}.</ref>
==Population estimates== thumb|400px|The Byzantine Empire may have had a population of over 26 million at its height. {{refbegin}} {| class="wikitable" style="text-align: center;" |- ! Year || Population<br>(estimated) || Area<br>(km<sup>2</sup>; estimated) || Population density<br>(per km<sup>2</sup>; estimated) ||Notes |- | 300 || 18,000,000<ref name="Tread137">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=137}}.</ref> || 2,000,000||9|| Roman East |- | 311 || 17,000,000<ref name="Tread137"/> || 2,100,000||8.1|| Roman East |- | 457 || 16,000,000<ref name="Tread137"/> || 2,350,000||6.81|| Roman East |- | 518 || 19,000,000<ref name="Tread236">{{harvnb|Treadgold|2001|p=236}}.</ref>|| 2,300,000||8.26|| |- | 540 || 26,000,000<ref name="Tread278">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=278}}.</ref>|| 3,200,000||8.13||Just before the Plague of Justinian |- | 565 || 20,000,000<ref name="Tread278"/>|| 3,400,000||5.88||Justinian I's death |- | 600 || 17,000,000<ref name="Tread278"/>|| 2,900,000||5.86|| |- | 641 || 10,500,000<ref name="Tread236"/>|| 1,500,000||7|| |- | 668 || 10,000,000<ref name="Tread236"/> || 1,300,000||7.69|| |- | 775 || 7,000,000<ref name="Tread236"/> || 880,000||7.95|| |- | 842 || 8,000,000<ref name="Tread236"/> || 1,000,000||8|| |- | 959 || 9,000,000<ref name="Tread236"/> || 1,100,000||8.18|| |- | 1025 || 12,000,000<ref name="Tread570"/>|| 1,675,000||7.16||Basil II's death |- | 1097 || 5,000,000<ref name="Tread700"/> || 555,000||9.09||First Crusade |- | 1143 || 10,000,000<ref name="Tread700"/> || 1,000,000||10||John II's death |- | 1204 || 9,000,000<ref name="Tread700"/> || 610,000||14.75||Fourth Crusade |- | 1282 || 5,000,000<ref name="Tread841">{{harvnb|Treadgold|1997|p=841}}.</ref> || 550,000{{Citation needed|reason=This number is too big, while including only parts of northwestern Anatolia and southern Balkans at this point|date=December 2025}}||9.09||Michael VIII's death |- | 1312 || 2,000,000<ref name="Tread841"/> || 460,000{{Citation needed|reason=This number is too big, while including only coastal parts of northwestern Anatolia and parts of southern Balkans at this point|date=December 2025}}||4.35|| |- | 1320 || 2,000,000<ref name="Tread236"/> || 420,000{{Citation needed|reason=This number is too big, while including only coastal parts of northwestern Anatolia and parts of southern Balkans at this point|date=December 2025}}||4.76|| |} {{refend}}
==See also== * Armenians in the Byzantine Empire
==References== {{reflist}}
==Bibliography== *{{cite book|editor-last=James|editor-first=Liz|title=A Companion to Byzantium |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d1Mt-t-bgzoC&pg=PA3|location=Chichester, West Sussex|publisher=John Wiley & Sons|year=2010|isbn=978-1-4051-2654-0}} *{{cite book|last=Treadgold|first=Warren T.|title=A History of the Byzantine State and Society|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nYbnr5XVbzUC|location=Stanford, CA|publisher=Stanford University Press|year=1997|isbn=0-8047-2630-2}} *{{cite book|last=Treadgold|first=Warren T.|title=A Concise History of Byzantium|year=2001|location=Basingstoke|publisher=Palgrave|isbn=0-333-71829-1|url=https://archive.org/details/concisehistoryof00trea|url-access=registration}}
==Further reading== *{{cite book|editor-last=Laiou|editor-first=Angeliki E.|editor-link=Angeliki Laiou|title=The Economic History of Byzantium from the Seventh through the Fifteenth Century|year=2002|location=Washington DC|publisher=Dumbarton Oaks|isbn=0-88402-288-9|url=https://www.doaks.org/resources/publications/books/the-economic-history-of-byzantium}} *{{cite book|last1=Mcevedy|first1=Colin|last2=Jones|first2=Richard|title=Atlas of World Population History|year=1978|location=United Kingdom|publisher=Penguin Books Ltd. and Allen Lane|url=https://www.scribd.com/document/265075586}} *{{cite book|last=Page|first=Gill|title=Being Byzantine: Greek Identity Before the Ottomans, 1200-1420|year=2008|edition=1|location=United Kingdom|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-0521871815|oclc=302061918}}
==External links== *{{cite web|author=Howard Wiseman|title=18 Centuries of Roman Empire|year=2002–2011|url=http://www.ict.griffith.edu.au/wiseman/Roman/RomanEmpire.html}} {{Byzantine Empire topics}} Category:Society of the Byzantine Empire Category:Society of Greece Category:Demography Category:Demographics of Europe Category:Demographics of the Middle East