(Re)counting the Uncounted. Replication and Contextualisation of Dutch and Belgian Premodern Population Estimates (1350-1800)

  • Project lead: Rombert Stapel
  • Grant: € 149.884 by NWO (Replication Studies, 3rd round)
  • Start: September 2020

In this project we replicate the four most used and most up-to-date population estimates for the Low Countries for the period prior to 1800. Dependable population estimates for this period are the cornerstone of historical, economic, and social scientific research. In this study, we return to the original primary sources underlying these estimations and link these to specially prepared GIS maps of local administrative boundaries.

Available data:
Historical Atlas of the Low Countries 1350-1800 (HALC)
Catalogue and typology of premodern censuses in the Low Countries
Repository of premodern censuses
Links between censuses and HALC GIS
Protocols for producing population estimates from census units (under development)
Documentation and instructions

Literature (selection):

Stapel, R.J. and Zandhuis, I. (2024) ‘Linked Data for modelling and replicating the knowledge production process in data-driven humanities research’, Digital Scholarship in the Humanities, 39, pp. i1–i8. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1093/llc/fqae038. Cite
Stapel, R.J. (2023) ‘Conflating Historical Population Statistics Using a Historical GIS with a Flexible Semantic Model for Premodern Administrative Units in the Low Countries: The (Re)counting the Uncounted and Historical Atlas of the Low Countries Projects’, in GeoHumanities ’23: Proceedings of the 7th ACM SIGSPATIAL International Workshop on Geospatial Humanities. Hamburg, Germany: ACM, pp. 56–59. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1145/3615887.3627756. Cite
Stapel, R.J. (2023) ‘Historical Atlas of the Low Countries. A GIS Dataset of Locality-Level Boundaries (1350–1800)’, Research Data Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences, 8(1), pp. 1–33. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1163/24523666-bja10033. Cite

Other links:
Project presentation 16 October 2024
IISH Project site
NWO Project page