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Historically Slavs were only a small part of Europe's population
Today Slavic-speakers are perhaps the most numerous linguistic group in Europe, at least if you include Russians. But this only really became a reality in recent centuries. In the Early Middle Ages Slavs lived over vast territory but population density was low.
Population estimates for several areas in the Early Middle Ages:
France in 1000 AD: low estimate 6.5 million, high estimate 9 million
Iberia in 1000 AD: low estimate 4.6 million, high estimate 9 million
Italy in 1000 AD: low estimate 5 million, high estimate 7 million
Germany* in 1100 AD: low estimate 10 million, high estimate 12 million
*Only "Altdeutschland" west of the Elbe - without East Germany, which was a Slavic land back then.
On the other hand, for Slavs I found the following estimates:
West Slavs in 1000 AD: low estimate 1.8 million, high estimate 2.5 million
South Slavs in 1000 AD: low estimate 1.2 million, high estimate 2 million
East Slavs in 1000 AD: low estimate 3.5 million, high estimate 4.5 million
TOTAL Slavic population in year 1000 AD: 6.5 million (low) to 9 million (high)
Poland in 1000 AD had 1 million up to 1.25 million, so around half of all West Slavs.
The remaining half of West Slavs lived in Czecho-Slovak lands and in East Germany.
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As you can see Germany, France, Italy and Iberia each had a comparable population size as all Slavic lands altogether.
I also have data about Slavic populations at the beginning of the 19th century. I will post this data below.
Even at that time (early 1800s) France alone had more inhabitants than the total number of ethnic Russians.
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Originally Posted by Mingle
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