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Historic empire maps

Censuses and ethnographic surveys inside borders that no longer exist — Ottoman millets, Russian and German empires, Austria-Hungary, British India, Qing China, and successor kingdoms.

The cards marked Coming are not broken links — they are a roadmap. Interactive district maps need historic administrative polygons (uyezds, vilayets, kreise, megyék) matched to period census tables. Using today’s oblasts or NUTS units would draw the wrong borders, so we did not fake them.

Live maps include 82 equal-population regions (1914–2050), Austria-Hungary 1910, Russian Empire 1897, Ottoman Empire 1914, Yugoslavia 1931, French Algeria 1936, and Africa 1880. More empires follow as historic GIS is matched.

Overview

  • World · 2050

    World in 82 equal-population regions, 1914–2050

    Live

    Scrub 1914 (hand-drawn), 1945, 1990, 2026, and 2050 — the same 82-tile idea as population shifts. Dense belts shatter; empty continents stay huge.

    • Equal population

    Open interactive map →

  • World · 2050

    World divided into 82 equal-population regions, 2050

    Live

    UN medium-variant projection partitioned into 82 equal-population regions (~118 million each).

    Open interactive map →

  • World · 2026

    World divided into 82 equal-population regions, 2026

    Live

    Algorithmic equal-population partition for 2026 (~101 million per region) — India and Nigeria claim far more tiles than in 1914.

    Open interactive map →

  • World · 1990

    World divided into 82 equal-population regions, 1990

    Live

    Algorithmic equal-population partition for 1990 (~65 million per region).

    Open interactive map →

  • World · 1945

    World divided into 82 equal-population regions, 1945

    Live

    Algorithmic equal-population partition for 1945 (~29 million per region). Prefer the multi-year scrubber to compare with 1914 and later.

    Open interactive map →

  • World · 1914

    World divided into 82 equal-population regions, 1914

    Live

    The 1914 world carved into 82 regions of about 20 million people each — Europe and eastern China shatter into many tiles; Canada, Siberia, the Congo and Australasia become huge blocs. Equal population first; period borders second. Scrub other years on the multi-year map.

    • ~20 million each

    Open interactive map →

  • World overview · 1914

    Great powers & empires, 1914

    Coming

    Interactive state-level overview on 1914 borders: each polity painted by its overall religious majority. District-level maps (Russian uyezds, Ottoman vilayets, German kreise) are listed below and still need historic census GIS.

    World overview paused — rendering on full-world historic basemaps was unreliable. Empire-specific maps (starting with Austria-Hungary) are being built instead.

    • Orthodox
    • Catholic
    • Protestant
    • Muslim
    • Shiʿa
    • Hindu
    • Buddhist
    • Mixed
    • Other

    Source: Borders: historical-basemaps world_1914. Plurality coding by birthrate.io.

Near East & Balkans

  • Ottoman Empire · 1914

    Ethnoreligious communities in the Ottoman Empire, c. 1914

    Live

    Turkish, Arab and Kurdish majorities alongside Greek, Armenian and Assyrian belts — with a separate Sunni / Shia / Alevi religion layer — on modern provinces inside the 1914 Ottoman outline.

    • Turkish
    • Arab
    • Kurdish
    • Greek
    • Armenian
    • Assyrian / Syriac
    • Jewish
    • Other Christian
    • Other / mixed

    Open interactive map →

  • Qajar Persia · 1900

    Peoples of Qajar Persia, c. 1900

    Coming

    Persian, Azerbaijani, Kurdish, Lur, Baloch, Arab and Turkmen majorities across late Qajar provinces — before the Pahlavi state and modern provincial borders.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Persian
    • Azerbaijani
    • Kurdish
    • Lur / Bakhtiari
    • Baloch
    • Arab
    • Turkmen
    • Other

    Source: Late Qajar gazetteers and early 20th-century ethnographic surveys (approximate).

  • Safavid Empire · 1700

    Faiths of Safavid Persia, c. 1700

    Coming

    Twelfth-Imam Shiʿa core with Sunni, Christian (Armenian, Assyrian), Jewish and Zoroastrian pockets — a schematic reconstruction from travel accounts and provincial notes, not a modern census.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Shiʿa Muslim
    • Sunni Muslim
    • Armenian Christian
    • Assyrian
    • Jewish
    • Zoroastrian
    • Other

    Source: Safavid-era travelogues, Armenian diocesan notes and later reconstructions (schematic).

Central Europe

  • Austria-Hungary · 1910

    Nationalities in Austria-Hungary, c. 1910

    Live

    Interactive Dual Monarchy map: toggle Empire / Austria / Hungary, switch ethnicity · population · density layers, and dig into district group mixes (e.g. Bratislavský). Minority enclaves included — Sudeten, Szekler, Saxon, southern Slovak Hungarian belt.

    • German
    • Hungarian
    • Czech
    • Polish
    • Ukrainian / Ruthenian
    • Romanian
    • South Slavic
    • Italian
    • Other

    Open interactive map →

  • Second Polish Republic · 1931

    Languages in the Second Polish Republic, 1931

    Coming

    Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Jewish (Yiddish), German and Lithuanian majorities by powiat — interwar Poland between the partitions and 1939.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Polish
    • Ukrainian
    • Belarusian
    • Yiddish / Jewish
    • German
    • Lithuanian
    • Other

    Source: Polish census 1931 (mother tongue).

  • German Empire · 1910

    Religion in the German Empire, c. 1910

    Coming

    Protestant north and east, Catholic south and west Rhineland / Bavaria / Alsace — kreis-level faith majorities inside the Kaiserreich.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Protestant
    • Catholic
    • Jewish
    • Other

    Source: German Empire census religion tables, c. 1910.

  • Kingdom of Hungary · 1910

    Nationalities in the Kingdom of Hungary, 1910

    Coming

    Transleithania before Trianon: Hungarian, Romanian, Slovak, German, Serbian, Ruthenian and Croatian majorities by megye — the map that framed the 1920 border settlement.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Hungarian
    • Romanian
    • Slovak
    • German
    • Serbian
    • Ruthenian
    • Croatian
    • Other

    Source: Kingdom of Hungary census 1910 (mother tongue / nationality).

  • Habsburg Monarchy · 1780

    Peoples of the Habsburg Monarchy, Josephinian era

    Coming

    Before the Dual Monarchy: German, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, Romanian, South Slavic and Italian lands under Vienna — early statistical surveys of the Josephinian reforms.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • German
    • Czech
    • Hungarian
    • Polish
    • Romanian
    • South Slavic
    • Italian
    • Other

    Source: Josephinian cadastral / early Habsburg statistical surveys (late 18th century).

Eurasia

  • Russian Empire · 1897

    Religions in the Russian Empire, 1897

    Live

    Interactive 1897 religion map: Orthodox core, Protestant Baltics, Catholic Congress Poland, Muslim Volga–Caucasus–Central Asia, Buddhist Kalmyk/Buryat steppe — modern provinces inside the 1914 outline (Finland omitted; no Prussian/Habsburg Poland).

    • Orthodox
    • Protestant
    • Catholic
    • Muslim
    • Buddhist
    • Armenian Apostolic
    • Jewish
    • Other

    Open interactive map →

Balkans

  • Kingdom of Yugoslavia · 1931

    Ethnicity in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, 1931

    Live

    Serbs, Croats, Slovenes, Bosnian Muslims, Macedonians, Albanians, Hungarians and Germans across banovinas — the interwar kingdom before World War II and the later SFRY.

    • Serb
    • Croat
    • Slovene
    • Muslim (Bosniak)
    • Macedonian
    • Albanian
    • Hungarian
    • German
    • Other

    Open interactive map →

  • Kingdom of Romania · 1930

    Ethnicity in Greater Romania, 1930

    Coming

    Romanians, Hungarians, Germans, Jews, Ukrainians and Bulgarians across Transylvania, Bessarabia and Bukovina — the enlarged kingdom after 1918.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Romanian
    • Hungarian
    • German
    • Jewish
    • Ukrainian
    • Bulgarian
    • Other

    Source: Romanian census 1930 (ethnicity / mother tongue).

Africa

  • Africa · 1880

    Africa before the Berlin Conference, c. 1880

    Live

    African kingdoms, Muslim caliphates, Ethiopia and Liberia, Boer republics, and the thin European coastal footholds that existed before the 1884–85 Berlin Conference scrambled the interior.

    • Muslim polity
    • Christian polity
    • African kingdom
    • Boer republic
    • European foothold
    • Other / unnamed

    Open interactive map →

North Africa

  • French Algeria · 1936

    Communities in French Algeria, c. 1936

    Live

    Muslim Algerian, European settler (pied-noir) and Jewish majorities by commune — colonial Algeria between the conquest and independence.

    • Muslim Algerian
    • European
    • Jewish
    • Other

    Open interactive map →

South Asia

  • British India · 1911

    Religions in British India, 1911

    Coming

    Hindu, Muslim, Sikh, Christian, Buddhist and tribal majorities across provinces and princely states — the last empire-wide census before Partition redrew the map.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Hindu
    • Muslim
    • Sikh
    • Christian
    • Buddhist
    • Tribal / Animist
    • Other

    Source: Census of India 1911 (religion by district).

East Asia

  • Qing Empire · 1910

    Peoples of the Qing Empire, late Qing

    Coming

    Han core provinces, Manchu Northeast, Mongol banners, Tibetan plateau and Turkic Xinjiang — approximate majority peoples on the eve of the 1911 Revolution.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Han
    • Manchu
    • Mongol
    • Tibetan
    • Uyghur / Turkic
    • Hui
    • Other

    Source: Late Qing gazetteers and early Republican ethnic compilations (illustrative provincial majorities).

Southeast Asia

  • Dutch East Indies · 1930

    Peoples of the Dutch East Indies, 1930

    Coming

    Javanese, Sundanese, Malay, Madurese, Minangkabau, Balinese, Chinese and many others across residencies — the last colonial census before Indonesian independence.

    Needs historic administrative GIS (uyezd / vilayet / kreis / district polygons) matched to period census tables. Borders from today’s maps would be misleading — we are waiting on open historic boundary files (e.g. Heidelberg 1897 / Ristat), which are behind archive download walls from this build environment.

    • Javanese
    • Sundanese
    • Malay
    • Madurese
    • Minangkabau
    • Balinese
    • Chinese
    • Other

    Source: Volkstelling 1930 (Dutch East Indies census).

Looking for today’s fertility by province? See regional maps.

What this page measures

  • —Historic layers use period administrative units (uyezds, kreise, crownlands) that do not match today’s borders. Interactive polygons ship as each boundary file is matched to the census tables.

Definitions for every indicator are listed in the glossary, and collection methods in the methodology.

▸Sources & citation
  • Regional mapsModern fertility by state and province
  • Census mapsContemporary ethnicity and ancestry choropleths
  • FertilityNational rates and nowcasts

birthrate.io, "Historic empire maps". https://www.birthrate.io/maps/historic (accessed 27 September 2026).

Please cite the original statistical agency for the underlying figures. Charts and tables on this page may be reused with attribution.