Family Size in the Peloponnese (Southern Greece) in 1700

Abstract

This article initially presents a reworking of data in a Venetian census of 1700 for the Peloponnese, a region in southern Greece. The analysis is then compared with one based on another Venetian document dated either to 1702 or 1711, and a mean family size of about 4.0 is confirmed. The calculations for 1700 are refined to produce calculations of mean family size for urban and rural communities (3.60 and 4.17, respectively). The results are then discussed in terms of data from the early nineteenth century for the same region. Conclusions are drawn that support the case for a small mean family size in southern Europe in the eighteenth century and question the continued use of multipliers as high as 5.0 in converting Ottoman fiscal data into population numbers.