Download
All DEMOPAST data is available for direct download below, for each of the eleven census years (1861, 1871, 1881, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1936, 1951, 1961, 1971): the long-format adjusted-age census tabulation and the province boundary shapes as GeoJSON.
Census tables — long format (adjusted age)
One row per (province, age class, sex) combination, harmonised across years to a common 19-group age classification. These are the canonical source tables; everything else on the site is computed from them.
Columns: code (COD_PROV, integer), province (modern name), age_class (0, 1-4, 5-9, …, 85+), male, female, total.
| Year | File | Size |
|---|---|---|
| 1861 | data_census_1861_adjusted_age.csv | 38 KB |
| 1871 | data_census_1871_adjusted_age.csv | 55 KB |
| 1881 | data_census_1881_adjusted_age.csv | 51 KB |
| 1901 | data_census_1901_adjusted_age.csv | 44 KB |
| 1911 | data_census_1911_adjusted_age.csv | 52 KB |
| 1921 | data_census_1921_adjusted_age.csv | 53 KB |
| 1931 | data_census_1931_adjusted_age.csv | 67 KB |
| 1936 | data_census_1936_adjusted_age.csv | 68 KB |
| 1951 | data_census_1951_adjusted_age.csv | 70 KB |
| 1961 | data_census_1961_adjusted_age.csv | 68 KB |
| 1971 | data_census_1971_adjusted_age.csv | 76 KB |
Cities — the 13 largest, long format (adjusted age)
Population by age and sex for the comune of Torino, Milano, Venezia, Genova, Bologna, Firenze, Livorno, Roma, Napoli, Bari, Palermo, Messina and Catania — the city itself, not its province. One row per (year, city, age class), on the same 19-group classification as the province tables, so the two join on code (the COD_PROV of the province each city is capoluogo of).
| File | Size | Rows | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| data_census_citta.csv | 113 KB | 2,470 | 13 cities × 10 years × 19 age groups |
Two things to know before using it. Coverage is 10 of the 11 census years — 1871, 1881, 1901, 1911, 1921, 1931, 1936, 1951, 1961, 1971. Only the 1861 census is missing, because it published age only down to the province. The 1901 table classifies by year of birth (converted here to age at the census date) and 1911 has single years to 21 plus five-year groups, both transcribed from Vol. II of the respective censuses. And the concept changes mid-series: 1871–1931 is the present population (de facto), 1936–1971 the resident population — for Roma in 1921 the present exceeds the resident by 4.2%, so the 1931→1936 step is partly a change of definition.
A companion file gives the complement — the province excluding its capoluogo (resto provincia), computed cell by cell as province minus city on the same 19 age groups. Useful for urban/rural contrasts within a province. No cell is negative; three cells inherit a male+female ≠ total inconsistency already present in the province source (flagged in the file’s provenance notes). Boundary changes of the comune (the 1920s–30s annexations) show up as discontinuities in the resto series, by construction.
| File | Size | Rows | Coverage |
|---|---|---|---|
| data_census_resto_provincia.csv | 130 KB | 2,470 | 13 provinces minus capoluogo × 10 years × 19 age groups |
Transcribed in-house from the printed census volumes. Every city-year was verified against its printed total; for six of the ten years an independent ISTAT reference confirms the total to the unit. Age classes are exact for 1871, 1881, 1911, 1921, 1931 and 1936, and estimated for 1951, 1961 and 1971, where the printed classes do not align to the standard groups; in 1901 only the 15–19/20–24 boundary is estimated (the printed birth-year group 1882–80 spans ages 18–20 and is split using the same city’s 1911 single-year profile). Full provenance, caveats and errata: work_in_progress/citta/README.md.
Province boundaries — GeoJSON
Historical province polygons reprojected to WGS84 (EPSG:4326) and simplified to ~500 m tolerance. Source shapefiles come from the ISTAT Confini statistico-amministrativi: analisi storica collection. Each feature exposes COD_PROV (integer) and DEN_PROV (historical name), which join cleanly with the CSVs above.
| Year | File | Size | Provinces |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1861 | province_1861.geojson | 517 KB | 59 |
| 1871 | province_1871.geojson | 591 KB | 70 |
| 1881 | province_1881.geojson | 589 KB | 68 |
| 1901 | province_1901.geojson | 588 KB | 69 |
| 1911 | province_1911.geojson | 588 KB | 69 |
| 1921 | province_1921.geojson | 619 KB | 69 |
| 1931 | province_1931.geojson | 583 KB | 89 |
| 1936 | province_1936.geojson | 635 KB | 91 |
| 1951 | province_1951.geojson | 596 KB | 92 |
| 1961 | province_1961.geojson | 596 KB | 92 |
| 1971 | province_1971.geojson | 600 KB | 94 |
Citation
If you use DEMOPAST data in published work, please cite the project as follows:
Barban, N., Raftakis, M., Lionello, L., Maselli, L., & Omenti, R. (2026). DEMOPAST: Italian Historical Demographic Atlas. GENPOP project. demopast.it
Source census data comes from the Istituto Nazionale di Statistica (ISTAT); historical administrative boundaries come from ISTAT’s Confini statistico-amministrativi: analisi storica.
