Population of Scandinavia

In 1749 Sweden began as the first country in the world to keep reliable records of its population. The figures for Sweden after that year are exact but for the earlier years are they just estimates that gets more uncertain the further back in time they are.

Modern Estimates of the Population
(Sweden have two columns with alternative estimates)

	Sweden		Finland		Denmark		Norway
1571 1620	0.639 0.854	0.900	0.300	800 1200	0.900 1.000	0.550
1650 1695 1700	1.363	1.225 1.485	0.450 0.500	1500 1600 1650	0.800	0.570	0.225 0.400 0.450
1718 1721	1.408	1.440	0.391	1655 1660 1720	0.680 0.600 0.720

Sweden have two columns with alternative estimates because different methods have been used, however both refer to Sweden within its present borders (those in violet are more likely). Denmark's two columns on the other hand refer to different territories; figures in violet = within Denmark's historical borders (i.e. also the Scanian lands and Schleswig), figures in blue = within Denmark's present borders. A more detailed discussion about these estimates are available in Swedish.

Iceland's population is believed to have varied between 40 000 and 60 000 from the tenth century to the middle of the nineteenth century.

	Sweden	Finland	Denmark	Norway	Iceland
1703 1750 1760 1770 1780 1790	1.781 1.925 2.043 2.118 2.188	0.422 0.491 0.561 0.664 0.706	0.798 0.842	0.625 0.680 0.730 0.760 0.800	0.050 0.050 0.041
1800 1810 1820 1830 1840	2.347 2.396 2.585 2.888 3.139	0.933 0.863 1.178 1.372 1.446	0.929 1.100 1.210 1.289	0.883 0.900 0.970 1.120 1.240	0.047 0.050 0.057
1850 1860 1870 1880 1890	3.483 3.860 4.169 4.566 4.785	1.637 1.747 1.769 2.061 2.380	1.415 1.608 1.785 1.969 2.172	1.390 1.600 1.730 1.920 2.001	0.059 0.067 0.070 0.072 0.071
1900 1910 1920 1930 1940	5.136 5.522 5.904 6.142 6.371	2.656 2.943 3.148 3.463 3.696	2.430 2.740 3.280 3.551 3.844	2.243 2.392 2.653 2.814 2.970	0.078 0.085 0.095 0.109 0.121
1950 1960 1970 1980 1990 2000	7.042 7.498 8.081 8.318 8.591 8.861	4.030 4.446 4.598 4.771 4.998 5.171	4.281 4.585 4.938 5.125 5.140 5.330	3.278 3.591 3.874 4.091 4.247 4.400	0.144 0.177 0.205 0.229 0.255 0.272

The figures for Denmark and Norway 1770 and 1800 refers to 1769 and 1801 respectively. Apart from these years are the Norwegian statistics before 1800 just estimates. Iceland's figures for 1780, 1790 and 1800 refer to 1783, 1785 and 1801.