78
votes
Why are many African-Americans in Mississippi concentrated in the northwestern area?
You are describing part of what is referred to as the Black Belt in the American South. It can be seen here in a map of majority-black US counties.
Your suspicions for the reason for this are quite ...
- 113k
51
votes
Accepted
Why did the population of Descartes, France increase by so much in the 1960's?
Based on this page from the French School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences, it appears that the neighbouring Balsesmes merged into La Haye-Descartes in 1966, before the combined commune was ...
- 96.5k
44
votes
Why are many African-Americans in Mississippi concentrated in the northwestern area?
T.E.D.'s answer (+1) is complete with regard to the human history of the Americas, but the rich soil in the "cotton belt" or "black belt" has a geological explanation as well. The article "How ...
- 27.4k
40
votes
Accepted
Did people use to marry much younger during the last millennium?
Not really.
Generally speaking, most European women since married in their early to mid twenties, to men in their mid to late twenties. The age gap for the commoners, i.e. the vast majority of the ...
- 96.5k
39
votes
Why does Latin America have a higher number of surviving Native Americans than North America?
I think you are missing the true pattern of that map. Note that it shows a higher percentage of natives in Canada than it does in the US, and shows the same lower percentage of natives in the USA as ...
- 113k
39
votes
Accepted
When and how did the Han ethnic group become by far the biggest ethnic group in China?
China is a continental scale country, thus "Han" is a category sorta like "European". One visit to Beijing or Shanghai will make it obvious that China is indeed a cosmopolitan, ...
- 7,362
37
votes
Accepted
Why did the population of Anchorage, Alaska, increase by so much in the 1970s?
There were two major, interrelated events that caused this population boom in the 1970s.
The first was the discovery of oil on Alaska's North Slope at Prudhoe Bay and elsewhere in 1968 and 1969. The ...
- 103k
36
votes
Accepted
Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?
For the vast majority of Germans, religious and non-religious alike, religion matters little in daily life. In some families, the babies are baptised, marriages have both civil and religious ...
- 16.3k
30
votes
Accepted
What was the relatively most populous city in history?
I've combined the data in:
List of largest cities throughout history
World population estimates
The winners are:
Modern Tokyo (metropolitan area), home to 0.55% of the world's population
700 AD ...
- 14.5k
28
votes
Why did the population of Anchorage, Alaska, increase by so much in the 1970s?
University of Alaska, Anchorage published a study into People and Economy of Alaska, which can be viewed here.
From that source, I'd say there are following reasons for their population boom:
...
- 8,153
28
votes
Accepted
What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
According to this article the ratio rose from 1.10 to about 1.54 (ratio of men/women fell from 0.91 to about 0.65) between 1941 and 1946 in the draft-age group (people born around 1887 to 1927), which ...
- 8,618
28
votes
Demographics: Were diseases the sole reason for the decrease in native Hawaiian population?
There's nothing really odd about this. The same thing historically has happened all over the globe any time an immunologically naïve population meets up with one that is tapped into all of the ...
- 113k
27
votes
Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?
80% does not seem to be way off compared with other industrial countries like
Sweden (85%),
Denmark (80%),
Norway (72%),
Czech Republic (61%),
Finland (60%)...
- 2,036
21
votes
Why are the majority of Dresden inhabitants atheists or agnostics?
German here. You see here a chart of the predominant confessions in Germany:
Wikimedia Commons, Martin Sander, CC BY-SA 3.0, 2013-06-23
As you see, approximately one third is Roman-Catholic (yellow),...
- 5,068
17
votes
Why does Latin America have a higher number of surviving Native Americans than North America?
Apart from other reasons here exposed, I think it is worth mentioning
a) some groups of South American natives were adapted (culturally, and even in some cases, physically) to environments which ...
- 12.3k
17
votes
What was the ratio women to men after World War 2 in the Soviet Union
The Soviet population in 1941 was 196,716,000. In 1946, it was 170,548,000.[1] That's a difference of 26,168,000 people. According to a study published by the Russian Academy of Science[2], there were ...
- 4,302
16
votes
Are there any examples of overpopulation?
Because people are quibbling in comments over the meaning of "overpopulation", it might suggest that this question is broad or unclear. So let's look at it from a different angle.
In the 1960's, Dr. ...
- 3,932
15
votes
Accepted
How common was it for people to live 80+ years in the 17th century?
Actuarial science was just getting started in the 17th century, so we can answer this question with some specificity--for London and Breslow, anyway.
John Graunt made the following life table for ...
- 18k
14
votes
Accepted
What percentage of the population in the Thirteen Colonies in 1776 were first/second generation immigrants?
UPDATE: Aaron Fogleman estimates that 585,000 people "immigrated" (many involuntarily) to the 13 colonies between 1700-1775. If they all survived until the time of the Revolution, then 24% of the ...
- 18k
13
votes
Are there any examples of overpopulation?
Maybe not
Joseph Tainter argues, in Archeology of Overshoot and Collapse, that so far there is no evidence of a Malthusian catastrophe. Whether you follow Tainter in this assertion will in part depend ...
- 4,714
13
votes
When did Northern India and N. China begin to dominate in global demographics?
Using the delta areas as proxies for the entire river valley systems:
The area of the Ganges delta (about 59,000 km2) is nearly 4 times as large as Mesopotamia (about 15,000 km2), and 3 times as ...
- 69.7k
12
votes
Accepted
What factors contributed to the United States having a larger proportion of Jews than other British colonies?
The answer is simple - the US population is not primarily British in descent. The states have had large numbers of immigrants from all over Europe. Canada, New Zealand, and Australia have a much ...
- 849
12
votes
Accepted
Were death rates greater than birth rates in premodern urban populations?
While Peter Turchin has overstated the case, it is most likely that this was usually true. Infant mortality rates were very high until they started to decline in the early decades of the 20th century (...
- 107k
12
votes
Are there any examples of overpopulation?
As noted in the discussion on the question, there are two kinds of overpopulation which I'll call "chronic" and "acute". Chronic overpopulation, where the full production capacity of agriculture in ...
- 6,249
11
votes
Accepted
What was the average size of French families during the Middle Ages?
As far as we can tell, Medieval French families were significantly bigger than modern western families - averaging perhaps around five to six. In contrast, modern France has an average household size ...
- 96.5k
10
votes
Accepted
Are there any scientific estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece?
There are no really reliable estimates for the population of Mycenaean Greece, although scholars have supplied some (more or less educated) guesses. On the more conservative end of the scale, Stanford'...
- 96.5k
9
votes
What was the estimated population living in Egypt around 1446 BC?
Population estimates
A number of estimates have been made for the population of ancient Egypt but, as the article The people of ancient Egypt says,
Egyptologists tend to dodge the issue of ...
- 107k
9
votes
Are there any examples of overpopulation?
Easter Island is one example. From the Wikipedia article:
It is believed that Easter Island's Polynesian inhabitants arrived on
Easter Island sometime between 700 and 1100 CE. They created a
...
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