The population of Macao, 1770s–1820s

Abstract

The study of nineteenth century demographic tendencies presents recurrent challenges, mainly because information is often scattered and difficult to handle, which interferes with the process of analyzing society. This applies to the study of Macao during the nineteenth century. This article is an initial attempt to summarize demographic information that was produced by orders of the Crown between 1770 and 1820. Although this paper is based mainly on raw data, we have tried to complement it with a historical contextualization and problematization, dividing the analysis into categories according to population growth, relationships between religions, gender, free and slave populations, and a very brief representation of age groups.