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Population of Slovakia 1918 - 1938

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INFOSTAT – INSTITUTE OF INFORMATICS AND STATISTICS Demographic Research Centre POPULATION OF SLOVAKIA 1918 - 1938 Published by: Akty Bratislava, May 2002 This analytical publication evaluates the population development in Slovakia from 1918 until 1938. Authors: Vladimír Srb Layout and design: Ján Mészáros Translation František Bernadič This document has been made in INFOSTAT, Bratislava. The wording can be used only in reference to this document. No language redaction has been made. Contents INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................... 5 1. TERRITORY AND POPULATION .......................................................................................................... 5 2. CONCENTRATION AND URBANISATION .......................................................................................... 6 3. AGE STRUCTURE OF POPULATION ................................................................................................... 7 4. ECONOMIC STRUCTURE OF POPULATION ..................................................................................... 8 5. NATIONALITY......................................................................................................................................... 10 6. RELIGION................................................................................................................................................. 11 7. NATURAL CHANGE OF POPULATION ............................................................................................. 12 8. MIGRATION............................................................................................................................................. 20 9. RETROSPECTIVE POPULATION DEVELOPMENT........................................................................ 20 10. INTERNATIONAL COMPARISON OF THE POPULATION REPRODUCTION........................ 21 CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................................. 22 5 INTRODUCTION Demography of the Slovak Republic has more than two hundred-year tradition. In the territory of the current Slovak Republic, the first census of population was made within the framework of the Hungarian monarchy in 1784 against the will of national aristocracy. That was also the reason why the results of this census were not kept. The statistical survey on natural population change started in 1852. The first modern census – common for the whole Austrian and Hungarian monarchy - was the census as of 31 October 1857. This census was followed by censuses made always after a decade, as it was recommended by international statistical bodies. Since 1918, Slovakia traced the census activities and the statistics on natural population changes jointly with Czechia within the common Czech and Slovak Republic. The presented paper is devoted to the population development in Slovakia since 1918 until 1938. After the World War I the borders of Slovakia were determined by the Trianon agreement of victorious countries, includ- ing the Czech and Slovak Republic, with Hungary as of 4 June 1920. Thus, Slovakia was determined by the borders surrounding the territory of 48 936 km2 with the biases caused by the imprecise delimitation or meas- urement. Thereby, the Trianon peace agreement for the first time in the history of Slovakia had stated also its borders. It had stated the territory, which was in several versions required by the foreign resistance movement, represented by T.G. Masaryk, E. Beneš, M.R. Štefánik, from the allied governments during the negotiations on the Versailles peace in 1920. Even the 1st Statistical handbook of Czechoslovakia being compiled in 1919 and released in 1920 by the State Statistical Office1 stated that in “tables for Slovakia, which had been compiled according to Hungarian data sources, 16 counties and 4 cities having the municipality rights accounting for 56 298 km2 with 3 350 600 popu- lation were to be considered as a territory of Slovakia2. Obviously, also the Užhorod County was considered as part of Slovakia. After its deduction, Slovakia, being accordingly delimited, had the area of 53 068 km2 with 3 188 511 inhabitants according to the census in 1910. In respect to the mother tongue language, there were 1 672 966 Slovaks, 7 762 Czechs, 90 726 Ruthenians, 203 268 Germans, 1 155 362 Hungarians, 26 448 Polish and 31 939 members of other or undisclosed nationalities. Before the settlement of the Trianon peace on 20 August 1919, thus immediately after the cessation of fights for freedom with Hungary, the preliminary census was carried out in the territory under the control of the Minis- try with the plenary powers on the administration of Slovakia, the results of which were the subject of publica- tion” The List of Cities in Slovakia according to the 1919 Census”. 3 2 948 307 people were recorded in total, of which 1 962 766 (66,57%) were of Czechoslovak nationality, 93 411 (3,11%) people declared Ruthenian nationality, 692 831 (23,50%) people declared Hungarian nationality, 143 589 (4,87%) people stated the German nationality and 55 710 people (1,89%) were of another nationality. From 3542 municipalities, in 2 087 municipalities the majority (90-100%) population declared their nationality as Czechoslovak. The area of Slovakia was not stated. Even the analysis of the 1921 census data reported that data on the territorial area of Slovakia and Podkarpatská Rus were only approximate.4 Documents of Czechoslovak statistics, series VI. (censuses) and series XIV. (population changes) were the data sources for our analysis. Regarding the 1921 census (document No.9) and the 1930 census (document No. 98), including other six documents on 1921 census and seven documents on 1930 census, the data on the number of population were presented in relation to the territory of those days; as far as the data on the population change are concerned, the recalculations were made in relation to the territorial arrangement as of 1947, i.e. after achiev- ing three municipalities from Hungary and regarding the balanced decrease by 12 municipalities for the benefit of the Soviet Union in 1946. Despite the mentioned methodological notes, it sometimes happens that even in of- ficial data sources the data for the same variable are different, which result from the way how the particular characteristics have been processed. 1. TERRITORY AND POPULATION Due to the lack of more precise data on the area of Slovakia as of the inception of the common state of Czechs and Slovaks on 28 October 1918, we are presenting its area according to its declaration in 1921 census, i.e. 48 936 km2. As the number of population related to the above-mentioned date, the following figure has been 1 Statistical Handbook of Czechoslovakia, 1st edition, Prague, 1920. Released by the State Statistical Office, 106p. 2 Bratislava, Trenčín, Tekov, Turec, Orava, Liptov, Zvolen, Spiš, Šariš, Hont, Novohrad, Gemer, Abauj- Torna, Zemplín, Užhorod, and the following cities: Bratislava, Štiavnica, Košice and Komárno. 3 The List of Cities in Slovakia according to the 1919 Census, released by the Ministry with the plenary pow- ers on the administration of Slovakia, Bratislava, 1920, 211p. 4 Census of Czechoslovakia as of 15 February 1921. Statistics of Czechoslovakia, document No. 9, p. 1. 6 shown, which has been compiled based on the reconstruction of census data and data on population changes: 2 968 thousand presented inhabitants, of which there were 1438 thousand men and 1 530 thousand women.5 The administrative layout of Slovakia and Czechia within the framework of the incepted Czech and Slovak Republic was taken over from the Hungarian and Austrian legal system on the basis of the so-called Reception Law No. 11/1918. In terms of Slovakia this meant counties, municipality cities, districts, magistracy cities, nota- ries and municipalities. In 1910, there were 102 districts including 3 districts in the Užhorod county and part of districts in the following counties: Hont, Novohrad, Gemer, Abauj-Torna and Zemplín. Tab. 1: Administrative dividing in 1921 and 1930 Number Average area in km2 Year Registered Local Political Municipality Court Local Political Court settlements municipal. districts cities districts municipal. districts districts 1921 3 510 3 510 94 34 76 13,9 521 644 1930 3 524 3 479 77 2 78 14,1 636 628 Source : Československá statistika, Praha 1934 Area: 48 936 km2 in 1921 , 49 006 km2 in 1930. The territorial administration was owing to higher territorial areas newly amended by a nation-wide Act of Law No. 126/1926 on the establishment of county offices what meant the nation-wide adoption of the county layout, however, this new amendment entered into force in Slovakia only in relation to the following counties: XV. Bratislava, XVI. Nitra, XVII. Martin, XVIII. Zvolen, XIX. Liptovský Mikuláš, and XX. Košice. The re- sults of the 1921 census were processed according to the counties even in Czechia, where the Law on the county layout did not enter into force. The county layout was cancelled by the Act of Law No. 125/1927 on the territo- rial organization of the general administration. From the nation-wide point of view this Law had established lands and Slovakia was one of them. This amendment persisted until the end of the first republic and continued again after the World War II until 1949, when the regions were established by the Act of Law No.280/1948 on
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