Accurate or reliable data for historical populations of Armenians is scarce, but scholars and institutions have proposed estimates for different periods.
For most recent data on Armenian populations, see Armenian population by country.
Tadevos Hakobyan, Elizabeth Redgate, and David Marshall Lang all estimate that historical Armenia's population never exceeded 5–6 million, citing factors such as army size, tax records, and the region's largely uninhabitable terrain. [1] [2] [3]
Based on historical records, Igor M. Diakonoff estimated the population of Urartu as having "certainly exceeded one million and may have reached two or three million". [4] He also found 6 to 7 million a "plausible figure." [5] For around 585 BC, John M. Douglas proposed an approximate population of 3 million for Urartu and 2 million for Proto-Armenians. [6]
Ruben L. Manaseryan estimated the population of the short-lived empire of Tigranes the Great (r. 95 – 55 BC) at 10 million. [7] Sedrak Krkyasharyan estimated over 10.5 million people in his empire, including around 4 million Armenians. [8] Earlier estimates by non-historians such as Jacques de Morgan, Isaac Don Levine and Bodil Biørn put it considerably higher, at 25 and 30 million. [9] [10] [11] Hakob Manandian posited that the population of Armenia during the reigns of Artaxias I and Tigranes II was "much larger than that of later centuries." [12]
Agathangelos wrote that during the Christianization of Armenia in the early fourth century more than 4,000,000 men, women and children and more than 150,000 soldiers (a total of 4,150,000) were baptized by Gregory the Illuminator. [13] [14] [15] Malachia Ormanian accepted the figure, [16] while Edmond Schütz found the figure for the population of Greater Armenia “obviously exaggerated.” [17] Suren Yeremian proposed 4 million as the population of both Arsacid Armenia and of Armenians. [18] [19]
Based on tax records, Arsen Shahinyan estimated the population of Arminiya, an administrative unit of the Abbasid Caliphate, in the 8th and 9th centuries at 1.5 million, including 750,000 in Arminiya I (Greater Armenia), around 650,000 in Arminiya II (Arran, i.e. Caucasian Albania), and around 100,000 in Arminiya III (Jurzan, i.e. Eastern Georgia). [20]
Serob Poghosyan estimated Armenia's population in the 9th–11th centuries, when much of it was ruled by the Bagratids, at 5 to 6 million. [21] Mikayel Malkhasyan estimated Vaspurakan's population in the same period at no less than a million people. [22]
Tadevos Hakobyan suggested that Armenia's population reached 5 to 6 million only in the 13th century, prior to the Mongol invasion, when he estimated 4.5 million people in rural areas and around 500,000 in cities. [1] Others have estimated Armenia's population in the mid-13th century at 4 million. [23] [24] Based on tax records, Manandian estimated the combined population of eastern Armenia, Kars and eastern Georgia (Kartli and Kakheti) in the mid-13th century at 4 to 5 million. [25]
Modern Armenian scholars believe that the medieval Armenian Kingdom of Cilicia had a population of around one million, most of whom were Armenians. [26] [27]
August von Haxthausen quoted Catholicos Nerses V (then archbishop) as having told him in 1843 that he can assert with confidence the existence of more than eight million Armenians worldwide, including 30,000 Catholic Armenians in the Russian Caucasus. [28]
In 1847 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." He quoted the figures provided by Lucas Balthazar, the "intelligent editor" of the Smyrna-based Armenian newspaper The Dawn of Ararat, [a] who estimated 5 million Armenians overall, with 2 million in Russia, 2 million in Turkey and 1 million in Persia, India and elsewhere. [29]
The 9th edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (1875) cited Édouard Dulaurier's estimates c. 1850: approximately four millions Armenians in the world, including 2,500,000 in the Ottoman Empire, 1,200,000 in the Russian Empire, 25,000 in the Austrian Empire, 150,000 in Persia and Azerbaijan, 25,000 in continental India and the Archipelago of Asia, and the remainder of 100,000 scattered in various countries. [30]
Richard Robert Madden wrote in 1862 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." [31]
In 1876 John Buchan Telfer, quoted the figures provided by Garabed Ghazarosian in his 1873 The Universal Year Book, which estimated a total of 4.2 million Armenians worldwide, including 2.5 million in Turkish dominions, 1.5 million in Russia, 34,000 in Persia, 14,600 in Austria, 15,000 in England, India and other British possessions, 8,400 in Romania, 8,000 in Egypt, and 120,000 in other countries. [32] [33] In 1891, Telfer reported to the Royal Society of Arts that "most authorities" appear to agree that the total Armenian population worldwide amounts to around 5 million, with most "scattered in their own land and in adjoining territories" and nearly half a million "settled in distant parts." [34]
In 1891 Élisée Reclus wrote that while "usually estimated at three and even four millions," the total number of Armenians "would seem scarcely to exceed two millions." He estimated the "probable" number of Armenians as follows: 840,000 in Caucasia and European Russia, 760,000 in Asiatic Turkey, and 250,000 in European Turkey, 150,000 in Persia, and 60,000 elsewhere, with the total at 2,060,000. He estimated no less than 200,000 Armenians in Constantinople and noted that Tiflis held the second largest Armenian population of any city. [35]
At the 1893 Parliament of the World's Religions, Armenian activist Minas Tcheraz claimed that there were 5.1 million Armenians in total, including 80,000 Catholics and 20,000 Protestants. [36]
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. [37]
Adrian Fortescue wrote in 1916: "There are said to be about three and a half or four million Armenians in the world—1,300,000 in Turkey, 1,200,000 in Russia, 50,000 in Persia, and the rest dispersed throughout the world. Of these about three quarters belong to the Monophysite ("Gregorian") Church." [38]
According to the Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia , what is now Armenia (historically known as Eastern Armenia) that came under Russian rule in 1828, had a population of 161,700 in 1831, which rose to reach 1.01 million by 1913. [39]
According to the Russian Empire Census of 1897, there were 1,173,096 native speakers of Armenian in the empire. [40] The religious statistics indicated there to be 1,179,241 Armenian Apostolics and 38,840 Catholic Armenians, amounting to a total of 1,218,081. [41]
Estimates by John Foster Fraser (1907) [42] and Richard G. Hovannisian (2005) [43] put the number of Armenians within the Russian Empire in the early 20th century at around 2 million. According to official estimates for 1916, published in the Kavkazskiy kalendar , 1,859,663 Armenians lived in Russia's Caucasus Viceroyalty alone. [44]
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. [45] 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." [46] 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. [47]
Country/territory | Armenians |
---|---|
![]() | 1,709,550 |
![]() | 1,579,500 |
![]() | 83,400 |
![]() | 50,000 |
Western Europe ( ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() | 21,000 |
![]() | 20,000 |
![]() | 15,500 |
![]() | 10,000 |
![]() | 9,000 |
![]() | 6,000 |
![]() | 4,000 |
![]() | 1,000 |
Total | 3,508,950 |
1922The United States Department of State summarized the populations of Armenians in a November 1922 document entitled "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."
| 1923
|
1966The 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. [49] They were cited by Richard Hrair Dekmejian in Soviet Studies in 1968, [50] and by David Marshall Lang and Christopher J. Walker in 1976 in Minority Rights Group's entry on Armenians. [51]
| 1986Armenian Soviet Encyclopedia , Volume XIII ("Soviet Armenia"), 1987 [52]
|
Armenia Encyclopedia, 2012 [53]
|
|
|
Country/territory [d] | Ethnic Armenians | People born in Armenia (of any ethnicity) |
---|---|---|
![]() | 3,145,354 (2001 census) [54] 2,961,801 (2011 census) [55] | 2,927,306 (2001 census) [56] 2,821,026 (2011 census) [57] |
![]() | 1,130,491 (2002 census) [58] [59] 1,182,388 (2010 census) [60] | 481,328 (2002 census) [61] 511,150 (2010 census) [62] |
![]() | 212,621 (1980 census) [63] 308,096 (1990 census) [64] 385,488 (2000 census) [65] 474,559 (2010 ACS) [66] | 36,628 (1920 census) [67] [68] 32,166 (1930 census) [69] 65,280 (2000 census) [70] 89,261 (2010 ACS) [71] |
![]() | 248,929 (2002 census) [72] 168,102 (2014 census) [73] | 9,158 (2014 census) [74] |
![]() | 137,380 (2005 census) [75] 144,683 (2015 census) [76] | 14,676 (2005 census) [77] 16,335 (2015 census) [78] |
![]() | 37,500 (1996 census) [79] 40,505 (2001 census) [80] 50,500 (2006 census) [81] 55,740 (2011 census) [82] 63,810 (2016 census) [83] | 2,195 (2006 census) [84] 4,165 (2016 census) [85] |
![]() | 77,000 (1927 census) [86] 61,000 (1935 census) [86] 60,000 (1945 census) [86] 60,000 (1955 census) [86] | |
![]() | 44,869 (2003 census) [87] [88] 41,906 (2011 census) [89] | |
![]() | 14,667 (2001 census) [90] 15,761 (2006 census) [91] 16,698 (2011 census) [92] 19,247 (2016 census) [93] | 1,159 (2016 census) [93] |
![]() | 14,758 (1999 census) [94] 13,776 (2009 census) [95] | |
![]() | 13,677 (1992 census) [96] 10,832 (2001 census) [97] 6,552 (2011 census) [98] | |
![]() | 12,175 (1930 census) [99] 6,441 (1956 census) [100] 3,436 (1966 census) [101] 2,342 (1977 census) [102] 1,957 (1992 census) [103] 1,780 (2002 census) [104] 1,361 (2011 census) [105] | |
![]() | 10,191 (1999 census) [106] 8,512 (2009 census) [107] 9,392 (2019 census) [108] | |
![]() | 1,197 (1921 census) [109] 3,377 (1931 census) [109] 3,962 (1946 census) [110] 3,378 (1960 census) [111] 1,831 (2011 census) [g] [112] | |
![]() | 1,082 (2002 census) [113] 3,000 (2011 census) [114] | |
![]() | 83 (1935 census) [115] 2,644 (2000 census) [115] 2,632 (2011 census) [116] | |
![]() | 1,477 (2001 census) [117] 1,233 (2011 census) [117] | |
![]() | 1,165 (2001 census) [118] 3,571 (2011 census) [118] | |
![]() | 995 (2000 census) [119] 434 (2010 census) [119] | |
![]() | 228 (2013 census) [120] 276 (2018 census) [121] | |
Country/territory | Ethnic Armenians | People born in Armenia |
---|---|---|
![]() | 31,992 (1932 census) [122] | |
![]() | 24,911 (1936 census) [123] [124] | |
![]() | 17,188 (1927 census) [125] | |
![]() | 3,210 ( 1922 census) [126] 3,524 (1931 census) [126] | |
![]() | 1,705 (1911 census) [127] | 40 (1911 census) [128] |
![]() | 16 (1824 census) [129] 19 (1826 census) [130] 34 (1836 census) [131] 81 (1931 census) [132] [133] | |
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 [134] [135] | 1939 [136] [137] | 1959 [138] [139] | 1970 [140] [141] | 1979 [142] [143] | 1989 [144] [145] | Born in ArmSSR (1989) [146] | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Soviet Union | 1,567,568 | 2,152,860 | 2,786,912 | 3,559,151 | 4,151,241 | 4,623,232 | 2,971,930 | |
Armenian SSR | 743,571 | 1,061,997 | 1,551,610 | 2,208,327 | 2,724,975 | 3,083,616 | 2,570,422 | |
Azerbaijan SSR | 282,004 | 388,025 | 442,089 | 483,520 | 475,486 | 390,505 | 137,027 | |
↳ NKAO | 111,694 | 132,800 | 110,053 | 121,068 | 123,076 | 145,450 | 2,834 | |
Georgian SSR | 313,741 | 415,013 | 442,916 | 452,309 | 448,000 | 437,211 | 37,742 | |
↳ Abkhazia | 13,477 | 49,705 | 64,425 | 74,850 | 73,350 | 76,541 | 3,078 | |
Russian SFSR | 195,410 | 218,156 | 255,978 | 298,718 | 364,570 | 532,390 | 151,484 | |
Uzbek SSR | 14,976 | 20,394 | 27,370 | 34,470 | 42,374 | 50,537 | 12,280 | |
Ukrainian SSR | 10,631 | 21,688 | 28,024 | 33,439 | 38,646 | 54,200 | 36,498 | |
Turkmen SSR | 13,859 | 15,996 | 19,696 | 23,054 | 26,605 | 31,829 | 4,436 | |
Kazakh SSR | 7,777 | 9,284 | 12,518 | 14,022 | 19,119 | 10,756 | ||
Tajik SSR | 1,272 | 2,878 | 3,787 | 4,861 | 5,651 | 2,302 | ||
Kirghiz SSR | 728 | 1,919 | 2,688 | 3,285 | 3,975 | 1,701 | ||
Byelorussian SSR | 99 | 1,814 | 1,751 | 2,362 | 2,751 | 4,933 | 2,912 | |
Moldavian SSR | 1,218 | 1,336 | 1,953 | 2,873 | 1,318 | |||
Latvian SSR | 1,060 | 1,511 | 1,913 | 3,069 | 1,399 | |||
Lithuanian SSR | 471 | 508 | 955 | 1,655 | 895 | |||
Estonian SSR | 648 | 604 | 845 | 1,669 | 758 | |||
The population of historical Armenia may never have exceeded 5 or 6 million and most of its extent was not fit for settlement.
With its mighty mountains topped by eternal snow, two great lakes, and countless ravines and canyons, almost two thirds of the territory of historical Armenia must be classified as unfit for settled habitation. Large tracts of the Armenian plateau can yield only a scanty living to nomads and their herds. Although its territory once equalled that of England and Wales together, Armenia has never supported a population of more than five or six millions.
According to the data of Sarduri II's annals, within the Urartian Empire he abolished the duty of military service for 350,000 men.105 This means that the population of Urartu certainly exceeded one million and may have reached two or three million.
The total population of Urartu would be ca. six-seven million, which is a plausible figure. Cf. also the computations in I. M. Diakonoff, The Pre-history of the Armenian People, 1984, Delmar, N.Y., pp. 123ss.
The population of Urartu around 585 B.C. was approximately three million and that of Arme was two million.
Հայոց արքայի իշխելը 10 միլիոն բնակչություն ունեցող 900.000 կմ² տարածքի վրա
Or, leurs ambitions ne vont nulle- ment jusqu'à désirer comme frontières les limites du royaume de Tigrane le Grand. L'Arménie comptait alors 25 millions d'habitants, tandis qu'aujourd'hui cette nation, éprouvée par tant de massacres, d'émigrations et de conversions forcées, ne comprend plus que tout au plus 4 millions d'âmes, dont environ la moitié habite des territoires qui, politiquement, font partie de l'Empire du Tsar.
Gregory now prepared to baptise the people of Armenia. [...] That day over 150,000 soldiers were baptised, and during the following week over 4,000,000 people.
According to the received version of Agat'angelos, Saint Gregory baptized more than four million Armenians in a week...
Մկրտուածներու թիւը 400 բիւր ըսուած է. որ է 4 միլիոն, այլ պէտք է այս թիւը բոլոր այդ միջոցին զանազան կողմեր մկրտուածներուն վրայ տարածել, եւ ոչ թէ նոյն օր մկրտուածներուն վրայ, վասնզի այդ թիւը դրուած է յայնմ աւուրս մկրտուած այր ու կին ու մանուկ ի միասին հաշուելով (ԱԳԹ. 435): = The number of baptized is said to be ... 4 million, but this number should be distributed over all those baptized in various places during that period, and not just those baptized on the same day, because this number is given as counting men, women, and children baptized together on those days.
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: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)The population figure of four millions given for the ancient Great Armenia, although obviously exaggerated, suggests Armenian preponderance in this region.
Այս ժամանակաշրջանում ամբողջ հայկական պետությունը, որի տարածքը 311 հազար քառ. կմ էր՝ մոտ չորս միլիոն ազգաբնակչությամբ...
Yeremian: 301-ին հայերը քրիստոնեությունն ընդունեցին որպես պետ․ կրոն։ Այդ ժամանակաշրջանում հայերի թիվը հասնում էր շուրջ 4 մլն մարդու, իսկ Մեծ Հայքի պետության տարածքը՝ 312 հզ․ կմ2։
Հայաստանում IX—XI դարերում [...] Կարելի է ենթադրել, որ Հայաստանը այդ ժամանակ ուներ 5—6 միլիոն բնակչություն։
modern scholars estimate the Armenian population of Greater Armenia (excluding Cilicia) to have been about 4 million in the mid-13th century.
Some estimates indicate the Armenian population of Caucasia (excluding Cilicia) of around 4 million in those years.12 = 12 Bedrosian, The Turco-mongol, 120–21; Dedeyan, Storia degli Ameni, [Dédéyan, Gerard, Boghos Levon Zekiyan, and Antonia Arslan, eds. Storia degli armeni. Guerini e Associati, 2002.] 242, whose calculations coincide with those provided by Bedrosian.
Կիլիկյան հայկական պետության ծաղկան ժամանակաշրջանում՝ XIII դարում, նրա տարածությունը կազմում էր 40.000 քառ. կմ, իսկ բնակչության թիվը անցնում էր մեկ միլիոնից։ [...] Կիլիկիայի քաղաքներում ու նավահանգիստներում էր կենտրոնացված Կիլիկիայի մեկ միլիոն բնակչության համարյա կեսը։ (Տե՛ս "Histoire de Chypre de Mas-Latrie", t. II, p. 682-690)
Կիլիկիայի հայկական թագավորության բնակչությունը կազմում էր մոտավորապես 1 մլն, որի գերակշռող մասը հայերն էին։ Սակայն Կիլիկիայում ապրում էին նաև հույներ, ասորիներ, հրեաներ և իտալացիներ (տե՛ս «Հայ ժողովրդի պատմություն», հ. III, Եր., 1976, էջ 724, 751-752)։
...the Armenian Church, which numbers even now 5,000,000 faithful souls, scattered over all parts of the globe. Etchmiadzin is revered not only by the sons of this church, but also by the 80,000 Armenians who have entered within the pale of the Church of Rome, the 20,000 who have become Protestants, and a small number which has adhered to the Greek orthodox.
...the Armenians, intellectual superiors of the peoples south of the Caucasus range, number about two millions...
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: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)The 1920 Census was the first to collect nativity and ancestry information from people tracing their roots to these new nations. For example, in 1920, the census found that ... 36,628 people were born in Armenia.
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: CS1 maint: postscript (link)The total number of Armenians in Cyprus according to the 1946 Census was 3,686 (or "3,962 in their widest definition"); see Cyprus, Census of Population and Agriculture, 1946 report, Nicosia, 1949, p. 11.