So, what do we know about the population of our city in the mid-to-late 19th century?
If we carefully examine the documents from that time, we can uncover some interesting facts:
1. In 1866, the population of our beloved city was 60,798. When workers arrived for the summer, the population increased by 20,000;
2. In 1873, excluding seasonal visitors (workers, merchants, and fairgoers), the population had already reached 82,133. However, detailed data was available only for 66,569.
Thus, the figure of 66,569 is the most objective.
3. Of these 66,569:
a) 39,603 came from the Kharkiv Governorate
b) The remaining 26,966 came from other governorates. Specifically:
1) Kursk Governorate—7,641
2) Oryol Governorate—1,956
3) Poltava Governorate—1,653
4) Kaluga Governorate—1,281
5) Moscow Governorate—1,190
6) Yekaterinoslav Governorate—1,187
7) Voronezh Governorate—754
8) Kyiv Governorate—734
9) Tula Governorate—512
10) Chernihiv Governorate—491
11) Mogilev Governorate – 431
4. There were 1,396 foreigners living in the city, although a document from 1873 lists the figure as 1,864
5. Jews – 2,397
6. In the 1873 document, we find an interesting figure regarding the number of non-Orthodox religious denominations in the province. However, given that Kharkiv was the provincial capital, the majority of them still resided in our city:
- Roman Catholics – 1558
- Armenian-Grigorians – 41
- Protestants – 1,205
Add to that the number of foreign nationals and Jews. This yields a very interesting result: about 10% of the population, out of Kharkiv’s 66,000 residents.
Sources:
The Kharkiv Calendar for 1873 and 1875