On the demographics of Szeged at the end of the Turkocracy
The question: whether the Turkish rule in Szeged led to population decline or growth can only be answered hypothetically. There are two methods of comparing the number of inhabitants before Mohács with that after the Turkish period. After the Turks, a strong influx of Germans and Serbs into the city was observed. The Hungarian-speaking sermon had to be stopped in 1725 because there was no one to understand it. This indicates demographic growth, but only after the Turkish era. However, the structure of growth has changed. János Reizner, historian of the city, estimated the number of the population from 1715 to 5000 due to the Regnicolaris Conscription. The war engineer, De la Croix, calculated 9,000 for Szeged as early as 1712. The difference can be explained with the interpretation of the statistics. The directory was created when the poorer residents were abandoned. The written heads of families represented a third of the population. To get a real result, one should multiply irritant’s date by 3. This adds the number of households to the true level. The increased number of households should then be multiplied by the average family size (5). According to this calculation, the population comes to 10,000. We get similar information from the matriculation register. For the period 1684-1699 there are only figures for Niederstadt. The number of live births per 1000 inhabitants per year was 45 per thousand in this period. Accordingly, you can count on about 4100 inhabitants with regard to the Niederstadt. According to the Josephine census of 1784, the percentage distribution of residents according to the parts of the city is already on time. From this, inferring to the post-Turkish period, it can be stated that there should also be a population of 10,000 using this method.
