Demographics of Vilnius

Vilnius is the historic and present-day capital of Lithuania. Records of demographic measures go back to 1766, though the city itself has existed much longer. In recent days, the demographics have been heavily influenced by the war in neighboring Ukraine.

Demographics of Vilnius
Population pyramid of the Vilnius City in 2021
Population	633,481 (2023)

Current Demographics

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine and an influx of Ukrainian refugees to Lithuania, who were granted a refugee status ^[1] the number of inhabitants of Vilnius rose to 636,209 as of February 2024 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The number of inhabitants of Vilnius, born in Ukraine rose from 10 thousand to 29 thousand between 2021 and 2023. The number of persons born in Belarus rose from 25 thousand to 37 thousand during the same period mostly as a consequence of 2020–2021 Belarusian protests and intensified fleeing abroad of its citizens. Also, numbers of persons, who settle in Vilnius, coming from Central Asia, Caucasus, African, Asian (most notably - India) countries are on the rise. ^[2]

In 2023-2024 a surge of migrants from Central Asia and India was observed. The number of economic migrants in Lithuania from Uzbekistan rose from 1.8 thousand to almost 10 thousand, from Kyrgyzstan – from less than 2 thousand to more than 6.6 thousand, from Tajikistan – from 1.4 thousand to 6.3 thousand, from India – from 1.2 thousand to 5.2 thousand. Most of these migrants settled in Vilnius. ^[3]

As of late 2023, 73 thousand foreigners lived in Vilnius, up from 38 thousand a year and a half earlier. In January 2022, there were also 5 000 foreign minors living in Vilnius, but the number had risen to 13 000 in January 2023. ^[4]

Before these dramatic changes, what led to the sharp rise of the number of inhabitants, the city of Vilnius as of early 2021 had a population between 569,729 ^{[5] [6]} (according to Statistics Lithuania) and 588,412 ^[7] (according to the State Enterprise Centre of Registers). According to the municipality of Vilnius, the city had a population of 597,610 ^[2] as of May 2022 – the figure includes Grigiškės, a formally separate town within the municipality of the capital, but without a separate body of a town government except that of a Vilnius city district (seniūnija). The actual number of city inhabitants could be higher as according to the Vilnius territorial health insurance fund, there were 732,815 permanent inhabitants as of January 2021 in Vilnius city and Vilnius district municipalities combined ^{[8] [note 1]} .

According to the predictions, made by the municipality specialists of the city planning department of Vilnius, the number of inhabitants of Vilnius in 2030 could be between 630,3 thousand (pessimistic scenario) and 685 thousand (optimistic scenario) with the basic scenario of 651,6 thousand inhabitants within the city borders. ^[10]

Evolution

Demographic evolution of Vilnius between 1766 and 2024:

Historical population

Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1766 60,000 —     1796¹ 17,500 −4.02% 1800 25,400 +9.76% 1811 56,300 +7.50% 1818² 33,600 −7.11% 1822 43,900 +6.91% 1830 42,000 −0.55% 1834 52,400 +5.69% 1836 56,100 +3.47% 1839 54,700 −0.84% 1846 54,200 −0.13% 1852 65,400 +3.18% 1860 60,000 −1.07% 1870 64,200 +0.68% 1875 82,700 +5.19% 1885 102,900 +2.21% 1897 154,532 +3.45% 1909 205,200 +2.39% 1911 238,600 +7.83% 1916 140,800 −10.01% 1919³ 128,500 −3.00% 1923 167,400 +6.83%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 1931 195,100 +1.93% 1939 209,400 +0.89% 1941⁴ 270,000 +13.55% 1944⁵ 110,000 −25.87% 1959 236,100 +5.22% 1970 372,100 +4.22% 1979 481,000 +2.89% 1985 544,400 +2.09% 1989 576,700 +1.45% 1990 597,000 +3.52% 1992 644,600 +3.91% 1995 578,327 −3.55% 1996 571,164 −1.24% 1997 565,881 −0.92% 1998 562,353 −0.62% 1999 558,816 −0.63% 2000 554,281 −0.81% 2001 550,924 −0.61% 2002 550,213 −0.13% 2003 548,729 −0.27% 2004 546,773 −0.36% 2005 542,525 −0.78%	Year Pop. ±% p.a. 2006 541,732 −0.15% 2007 541,596 −0.03% 2008 542,969 +0.25% 2009 543,191 +0.04% 2010 536,127 −1.30% 2011 533,279 −0.53% 2012 537,152 +0.73% 2013 539,707 +0.48% 2014 542,626 +0.54% 2015 543,493 +0.16% 2016 545,280 +0.33% 2017 547,484 +0.40% 2018 552,131 +0.85% 2019 561,836 +1.76% 2020 569,729 +1.40% 2021 563,012 −1.18% 2022 576,195 +2.34% 2023 593,250 +2.96% 2024 605,270 +2.03% 2025 607,404 +0.35%
Source: [11] [12] : 214, 303  [13] [14] ¹ Sharp decline after the Vilnius uprising (1794); ² Decline of population due to Napoleonic wars and the aftermath; ³ Sharp decline of population of Vilnius because of World War I and the aftermath during the clashes around Vilnius. These resulted in evacuation of Russian military, bureaucracy and the majority of its Russian inhabitants from Vilnius in 1915, as well as fleeing or evacuation of other Vilnius inhabitants of various communities (mostly Jewish and Lithuanian) to Russia and rural parts of Lithuania; [15] [16] ⁴ Rise of population due to influx of Polish and Jewish war refugees [17] and migration of Lithuanian bureaucracy, students from temporary capital Kaunas and other localities in Lithuania; ⁵ Sharp decline of population after atrocities of World War II and The Holocaust [18] [19]

Vilnius inhabitants by ethnicity

Year	Lithuanians		Poles		Russians		Jews		Others		Total
1897 [20] *	3,131	2%	47,795	31%	30,967	20%	61,847	40%	10,792	7%	154,532
1916 [21] *	3,669	2.6%	70,629	50.1%	2,080	1.5%	61,265	43.5%	3,217	2.3%	140,840
1917 [22] *	2,909	2.1%	74,466	53.65%	2,212	1.6%	57,516	41.44%	1,872	0.77%	138,787
1919 [21] *	2,900	2.3%	72,067	56.1%	4,049	3.2%	46,506	36.2%	2,954	2.3%	128,476
1923 [21] *	1,445	0.9%	100,830	60.2%	4,669	2.8%	56,168	33.5%	4,342	2.6%	167,454
1931 [23] *	1,579	0.8%	128,628	65.9%	7,372	3.8%	54,596	28%	1,159	0.6%	195,071
1941 [24]	52,370	28.1%	94,511	50.7%	6.712	3.6%	30,179	16.2%	2,541	1.4%	186,313
1942 [21]	29,480	20.5%	103,203	71.9%	6,012	2%	-	-	1,220	0.4%	143,498
1951 [21]	55,300	30.8%	37,700	21%	59,700	33.3%	5,500	3.1%	21,100	11.8%	179,300
1959 [25]	79,363	33.6%	47,226	20%	69,416	29.4%	16,354	6.9%	23,719	10%	236,078
1970 [21]	159,156	42.8%	68,261	18.6%	91,004	24.5%	16,491	4.4%	37,188	10%	372,100
1979 [21]	225,137	47.3%	85,562	18%	105,618	22.2%	10,723	2.3%	48,785	10.3%	475,825
1989 [21]	291,527	50.5%	108,239	18.8%	116,618	20.2%	9,109	1.6%	51,524	8.9%	576,747
2001 [26]	318,510	57.5%	104,446	18.9%	77,698	14.1%	2,770	0.5%	50,480	9.1%	553,904
2011 [27]	337,000	63.2%	88,380	16.5%	64,275	12%	2,026	0.4%	45,976	8.6%	535,631
2021 [28]	373,511	67.1%	85,438	15.4%	53,886	9.7%	N/A		43,655	7.8%	556,490

*By language spoken

Vilnius inhabitants by ethnicity

(results of the 2011 census) ^[29]

	Number of inhabitants
Lithuanians	338,758
Poles	88,408
Russians	63,991
Belarusians	18,924
Ukrainians	5,338
Jews	2,026
Tatars	934
Roma	619
Armenians	435
Latvians	360
Germans	341
Other	2,065
Refused to answer	13,432
Total	535,631

Vilnius inhabitants by ethnicity

(results of the 2021 census)

	Number of inhabitants
Lithuanians	373,513
Poles	85,436
Russians	53,887
Belarusians	15,156
Ukrainians	4,687
Other	5,705
Refused to answer	18,112
Total	556,490

Vilnius inhabitants by the country of birth

Vilnius inhabitants by the country of birth (as of February 2025) ^[2]

Country of birth	Number of inhabitants
Lithuania	526,409
Belarus	38,797
Russia	19,833
Ukraine	19,827
Great Britain	2,479
Kazakhstan	2,158
Uzbekistan	2,080
Azerbaijan	1,857
Tajikistan	1,840
India	1,719
Turkey	1,485
Latvia	1,435
Germany	1,097
Kyrgyzstan	1,072
Georgia	989
Poland	784
United States of America	778
Pakistan	768
Moldova	564
Ireland	490
Italy	455
Norway	432
France	400
Estonia	399
Nigeria	374
Armenia	354
Bangladesh	329
China	290
Spain	288
Cameroon	249
Morocco	244
Denmark	225
Belgium	223
Egypt	217
Netherlands	206
Iran	203
Turkmenistan	167
Afghanistan	164
Sweden	156
Syria	151
Israel	116
Algeria	107
Philippines	100
Canada	96
Portugal	94
Lebanon	94
Hungary	93
Brazil	92
Switzerland	90
Finland	88
Thailand	84
Argentina	81
Vietnam	80
United Arab Emirates	77
Austria	77
Greece	77
Sri Lanka	77
Nepal	76
Mexico	74
Czech Republic	64
Ghana	64
Australia	61
Japan	61
Romania	57
Bulgaria	56
Colombia	55
Kenya	50
Venezuela	46
South Korea	45
Iceland	44
South Africa	44
Cyprus	41
Iraq	39
Serbia	37
Saudi Arabia	38
Slovakia	37
Tunisia	36
Luxembourg	28
Indonesia	28
Albania	26
Cuba	26
Zimbabwe	25
Mongolia	24
Malta	23
Peru	22
Croatia	20
Democratic Republic of the Congo	19
Jordan	19
North Macedonia	18
Ecuador	17
New Zealand	17
Chile	15
Singapore	13
Taiwan	13
Other countries	268

Vilnius inhabitants by the country of birth (as of March 2023) ^[2]

Country of birth	Number of inhabitants
Lithuania	522,481
Belarus	37,197
Ukraine	29,336
Russia	20,834
Great Britain	2,330
Kazakhstan	1,938
Latvia	1,393
Germany	1,089
Uzbekistan	941
Azerbaijan	931
Kyrgyzstan	766
Poland	757
Georgia	688
United States of America	683
India	624
Tajikistan	540
Turkey	519
Moldova	510
Ireland	469
Italy	388
Norway	387
Armenia	380
Estonia	379
France	367
Spain	253
China	245
Nigeria	216
Belgium	209
Denmark	207
Turkmenistan	179
Netherlands	179
Syria	177
Afghanistan	170
Cameroon	151
Sweden	147
Pakistan	144
Iran	139
Egypt	125
Israel	103
Finland	96
Hungary	88
Canada	81
Portugal	81
Brazil	79
Lebanon	78
Switzerland	77
Czech Republic	74
Austria	70
Thailand	69
Vietnam	64
United Arab Emirates	59
Argentina	57
Greece	56
Mexico	56
Australia	54
Romania	49
Bulgaria	47
Cyprus	45
Japan	44
South Korea	37
Serbia	36
Colombia	35
Iceland	35
Morocco	35
South Africa	35
Slovakia	34
Venezuela	32
Iraq	30
Nepal	30
Luxembourg	28
Indonesia	27
Tunisia	25
Saudi Arabia	24
Bangladesh	22
Ghana	22
Mongolia	22
Albania	20
Algeria	20
Eritrea	20
Other countries	421

Vilnius inhabitants by the country of birth (2021) ^[2]

Country of birth	Number of inhabitants
Lithuania	517,936
Belarus	25,591
Russia	18,731
Ukraine	10,158
Great Britain	2,239
Kazakhstan	1,598
Latvia	1,335
Germany	954
Poland	752
United States of America	618
Uzbekistan	578
Azerbaijan	496
Georgia	474
Ireland	470
India	408
Moldova	384
Italy	378
Estonia	373
Norway	364
France	341
Turkey	329
Armenia	316
Kyrgyzstan	297
China	283
Spain	254
Tajikistan	209
Belgium	189
Denmark	187
Turkmenistan	153
Netherlands	149
Sweden	140
Nigeria	122
Iran	120
Cameroon	114
Syria	109
Serbia	98
Finland	97
Egypt	91
Israel	87
Pakistan	79
Vietnam	79
Hungary	77
Portugal	73
Austria	70
Canada	70
Switzerland	67
Czech Republic	67
Brazil	64
Afghanistan	51
Lebanon	51
Australia	50
Thailand	49
Greece	46
Mexico	45
Argentina	44
Bulgaria	44
United Arab Emirates	41
Japan	40
South Korea	36
Cyprus	31
Luxembourg	28
Iceland	27
Slovakia	27
Colombia	26
Romania	26
Nepal	24
Albania	23
Iraq	23
Morocco	22
Other countries	500

Elderships of Vilnius

Population figures of Vilnius by the city eldership (2021) ^[2]

Eldership	Area km² [30]	Inhabitants [31]	Density per km²
Verkiai	56	50,881	909
Žirmūnai	5.7	43,880	7698
Pašilaičiai	7.9	41,218	5217
Antakalnis	77.2	40,875	530
Naujoji Vilnia	38.6	39,102	1013
Fabijoniškės	5.9	38,027	9275
Naujamiestis	4.9	33,206	6777
Lazdynai	9.9	32,410	3274
Naujininkai	37.6	31,697	843
Šeškinė	4.6	29,809	6480
Pilaitė	13.9	28,335	2038
Justiniškės	3.0	26,684	8895
Karoliniškės	3.7	25,250	6824
Senamiestis	4.4	22,411	5093
Vilkpėdė	10.8	19,519	1807
Šnipiškės	3.1	15,750	5081
Viršuliškės	2.6	14,096	5422
Žvėrynas	2.6	13,703	5270
Rasos	16.3	11,666	716
Grigiškės	7.0	11,246	1607
Paneriai	84.8	10,537	124
Undeclared inhabitants		9,123
Total	400.5	589,425	1472

See also

• Demographic history of the Vilnius region

Notes

1. Some inhabitants of Vilnius district were registered at Vilnius city healthcare facilities – the actual number of permanent city inhabitants within the city administrative borders must have been higher than official figures of 569, 588 or 589 thousand, but smaller than 643,965 (as of 31 December 2020) ^[9]

References

1. WAR REFUGEES FROM UKRAINE, Statistics of Lithuania
2. Statistics of Vilnius
3. Lietuvoje mažėja ukrainiečių, kartais auga atvykusiųjų iš Vidurinės Azijos
4. Number of foreigners living in Lithuania surpasses 200,000
5. "Nuolatinių gyventojų skaičius apskrityse ir savivaldybėse metų pradžioje". osp.stat.gov.lt. Archived from the original on 2020-02-03. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
6. "Vilniaus istorija". vle.lt. Retrieved 15 January 2020.
7. State Enterprise Centre of Registers of Lithuania
8. "Health Insurance Fund under the Ministry of Health". Archived from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
9. "Inhabitants, registered at Vilnius city primary healthcare facilities". Archived from the original on 2021-01-28. Retrieved 2021-01-20.
10. Vilniaus miesto darnaus judumo plano santrauka, Vilniaus planas, page 48
11. "Gyventoju skaicius pagal savivaldybes 2023" (PDF). Registrucentras.lt. 2023-01-05.
12. Juozas Jurginis; Vytautas Merkys; Adolfas Tautavičius (1968). Vilniaus miesto istorija[Vilnius city history] (in Lithuanian). Vilnius.
13. Lexykon geograficzny, dla gruntownego poięcia gazet i historyi z różnych autorów zebrany, przetłumaczony i napisany przez x. Hilaryona Karpińskiego, Z. S. Bazylego w prowincyi litewskiey kapłana i teologa. Po śmierci iego, z przydatkiem odmian, które zaszły, z wykładem na początku terminów geograficznych, i słownikiem nazwisk łacińskich na końcu położonym, do druku podany[A geographic Lexicon, for the thorough help of newspapers and histories from various authors collected, translated and written by x. Hilaryon Karpiński, Z. S. Bazyli in the provinces and a Lithuanian priest and theologian. After the death of iego, with the advent of variations that have occurred, with a lecture at the beginning of geographical terms, and a dictionary of Latin names at the end, printed for publication] (in Polish). Vilnius. 1766. p. 602. Mieszkancow zaś dufz liczy na 60,000.
14. Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich, Tom XIII [Geographical dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic countries, Volume XIII] (in Polish). Warsaw. 1893. p. 493. Retrieved 10 March 2018.
15. "The Great War in Lithuania 1914–1918".
16. Pukienė, Vida. "Voronežas – lietuvių švietimo židinys Rusijoje Pirmojo pasaulinio karo metais". Istorija (in Lithuanian). Archived from the original on December 20, 2019.
17. Iš nežinios į nežinią: Antrojo pasaulinio karo atbėgėliai Lietuvoje [From one uncertainty to another uncertainty: World War II refugees in Lithuania] (in Lithuanian). Kaunas: National M.K. Čiurlionis Art Museum. 2015. ISBN   978-9955-471-55-4.
18. "Resident population by city / town at the middle of the year". Vilnius. Statistics Department of Lithuania. 1 July 2023. Retrieved 24 July 2023.
19. "Resident population on 1 January". osp.stat.gov.lt. 2024-01-22.
20. Первая всеобщая перепись населения Российской Империи 1897 г. – Вильна [First general census of the Russian Empire in 1897 – Vilna] (in Russian).
21. Srebrakowski 2000, p. 129.
22. Brensztejn 1919, p. 24.
23. "Drugi powszechny spis ludności z dn. 9.XII.1931 r. Miasto Wilno" [Second general population census of 9.12.1931. Vilnius city] (in Polish).
24. Srebrakowski 2020, p. 47.
25. Snyder, Timothy (2003). The Reconstruction of Nations: Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, Belarus, 1569–1999. Yale University Press. pp. 92–93. ISBN   978-0-300-10586-5.
26. "Gyventojai [Population]" (PDF). Statistics Department of Lithuania. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 April 2012.
27. Lietuvos gyventojai 2011 metais (2011 m. gyventojų surašymo rezultatai / Lithuanian 2011 Population Census in Brief) [Population of Lithuania in 2011 (Population Census 2011 results)]. Statistics Department of Lithuania. ISBN   978-9955-797-17-3 . Retrieved 11 March 2019.
28. "Rodiklių duomenų bazė - Oficialiosios statistikos portalas". Osp.stat.gov.lt. Retrieved 28 February 2022.
29. Lietuvos Respublikos 2011 m. gyventojų surašymo rezultatai, 162-163 p.
30. Vilnius city elderships by the area
31. Vilnius elderships by the number of inhabitants

Works cited

• Brensztejn, Michał (1919). Spisy ludności m. Wilna za okupacji niemieckiej od d. 1 listopada 1915 r. (in Polish). Warsaw.
• Srebrakowski, Aleksander (2000). Polacy w Litewskiej SRR 1944-1989. Toruń.
• Srebrakowski, Aleksander (2020). "The nationality panorama of Vilnius". Studia z Dziejów Rosji i Europy Środkowo-Wschodniej. LV (3).