Article:2.1.1

Jewish Population in Galicia and Bukovina during the Habsburg Rule

     Jewish Population in Galicia and Bukovina during the Habsburg Rule

Tomasz M. Jankowski

       Topics
       Demography and StatisticsMigration and Diaspora

       Period
       1772-1914

       Region
       GaliciaBukovina

       NLI Code
       997013604472105171

Related Entries

• Article:1.1.2
• Article:3.2.1

Map

• Proportion of the Jews in Galicia and Bukovina by court district, 1900
• Urbanization of the Jews in Galicia and Bukovina by court district, 1900

Jewish Population in Galicia and Bukovina during the Habsburg Rule

Tomasz M. Jankowski

The 19^th century was a period of intense social changes. Population growth, intensification of migration and fertility transition deeply shaped the demography of populations in east-central Europe. Galicia and Bukovina generally entered the modernization processes later than other Habsburg lands. Both lands, however, went through these processes in distinct ways.

The advent of the Habsburg rule over the south-eastern Polish Crown and northern Moldavia, and the formation of Galicia (1772) and Bukovina (1775), accelerated the introduction of nation-wide tools for population control. The statistical output from these tools, particularly yearbooks, needs to be interpreted cautiously. Vital registration of the Jews, introduced in 1784 with the Josephine records, remained highly ineffective and gradually improved only in the last decades before World War I. The state was not able track a substantial number of births. Disproportionate sex ratios at birth in the vital records represents general patriarchal attitudes as well as the general incompatibility of Jewish tradition with state regulations. Unlike in Christianity, where vital registration belonged to priests’ ritual duties, in Judaism the concept of registration was alien; this made birth, marriages and deaths highly invisible to the state.

Girls’ births evaded the registration more often than boys’, as they were less likely to face the requirement of providing a birth certificate, e.g., for schooling. In addition, the event of naming a girl, which was a formal occasion for registration of the newborn child, did not have to be attended by a mohel or any other representative of a kahal. The ceremony, therefore, had a more private nature. In 1850, the male-to-female ratio at birth recorded in Galicia was 131 to 100 and in Bukovina 122 to 100, far above the biological rate of 103–107 to 100 2.1.1-Demography-2. Under-registration in births flawed death registration as well, as deaths of infants without birth certificates were not likely to be registered. Moreover, only a few religious marriages were officially registered. Typically, spouses registered marriage only years later when they were required to prove their relationship, e.g., for residence permits, inheritance, or insurance. As a consequence, raw, state-level data on vital events should be discarded rather than taken as reliable.

Annexation of southern Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia entailed the need to regulate the status of as many as 180,000 Jews. The Habsburgs’ main concern was the growth of the Jewish population and its economic significance. In Bohemia and Moravia, the two Austrian lands most populated with Jews up to that time (accordingly 31,115 and 21,316 in 1773), Familianten Laws limited the growth by imposing an upper limit on the number of Jewish families allowed to reside, permitting only first-born sons to marry, and expecting the remainder to leave the land should they want to marry. Familianten Laws has not been extended to Galicia, but a series of restrictive regulations were imposed upon Galician Jews, which limited money lending and spirit distilling, fixed the number of Jewish families allowed to reside in selected towns, and, in addition, made marriage a privilege for wealthy and educated. These restrictions, mostly lifted at the beginning of the 19^th century, had a minor influence on fertility, as newlyweds circumvented them by contracting religious marriages and mostly avoided official registration 2.1.1-Demography-3.

Regular nation-wide census taking introduced by the Habsburgs, although also affected by under-registration, help to trace general population changes. Similar to the earlier period, the Jewish population in Galicia and Bukovina grew more quickly than the non-Jewish population. While around 1772 Galician Jews constituted about 6.4%–6.7% of the total population, at the peak time, in 1890, the share almost doubled to 11.6% (table 1, fig.1).

Table 1: Jewish and total population on the lands of Galicia, 1765–1939

Year	Population		Proportionof the Jewish population (%)
	Jewish	Total
1765	186,147
1772	171,851	about 2,685,200	6.4
1773	139,749	2,206,030	6.3
1776	144,200	2,580,796	5.6
1777	139,073	2,205,753	6.3
1780	151,302	2,778,718	5.4
1782	172,424	2,954,637	5.8
1783	177,582	3,007,540	5.9
1784	184,448	3,107,761	5.9
1785	212,002	3,229,061	6.6
1786	215,487	3,280,656	6.6
1787	210,898	3,303,120	6.4
1788	199,735	3,290,134	6.1
1797	192,840
1817	200,402	3,515,373	5.7
1820	about 218,000
1827	about 256,000	4,073,385	6.3
1830	241,482	4,144,212	5.8
1846	about 335,000	4,734,477	7.1
1851	333,451	4,555,477	7.3
1857	448,973	4,632,866	9.7
1869	575,918	5,444,689	10.6
1880	686,596	5,958,907	11.5
1890	768,845	6,607,816	11.6
1900	811,183	7,315,939	11.1
1910	871,895	8,025,675	10.9

Notes: Data for 1765 estimated for the Galician borders established in 1772. Estimation for the 1815 borders is 179,741. Early Habsburg censuses were affected by under-registration. Counts marked with “about” were rounded in the source. 1772–1807 including Zamość district, 1772–1846 without lands of Republic of Krakow, 1850–1910 including Republic of Krakow.

Source: Sources: Rocznik Statystyki Galicyi 1 (1886), 2; Józef Buzek, “Das Auswanderungsproblem in Österreich,” Zeitschrift fur Volkswirtschaft, Sozialpolitik und Verwaltung 10 (1901), 492; idem, “Wpływ polityki,” 97–121; Majer Balaban, “Perekhod polʹskikh evreev pod vlastʹ Avstrii,” Evreĭskai︠a︡ starina 6 (1913), no. 3, 291; Adam Krzyżanowski, Kazimierz Kumaniecki, Statystyka Polski (Kraków: Polskie Towarzystwo Statystyczne, 1915), 37–38; Statystyka Polski, Seria C, vols. 58, 64, 65, 68, 78, 88, table 10; Bohdan Wasiutyński, Ludność żydowska w Królestwie Polskim (Warszawa: Kasa im. Mianowskiego 1930), 90; Filip Friedman, “Dzieje Żydów w Galicji (1772–1914),” In Żydzi w Polsce odrodzonej, Ignacy Schiper, Arjeh Tartakower, Aleksander Hafftka, ed. (Warszawa: Żydzi w Polsce Odrodzonej, 1932), vol. 1, p. 377; Anton G. Rabinbach, “The Migration of Galician Jews to Vienna, 1857–1880,” Austrian History Yearbook 11 (1975), 48; Krzysztof Ślusarek, “Konskrypcyjny spis ludności Galicji z 1773 roku,” Studia Historyczne 47 (2004), 385–388. See also source to table 1 in “Demography of Galician and Bukovinian Jewry in the interwar period”.

In Bukovina the share grew even stronger, from 1.7% in 1783 to 13.2% in 1900 (table 2, fig.2)).

Table 2. Jewish and total population in Bukovina, 1774–1930

Year	Population		Proportion of the Jewish population (%)
	Jewish	Total
1774	2,375	68,704	3.5
1783	2,203	131,936	1.7
1816	4,160	200,742	2.1
1823	6,282	243,669	2.6
1846	11,581	371,131	3.1
1850	14,618	379,179	3.9
1857	29,187	447,095	6.5
1869	47,754	511,964	9.3
1880	67,418	571,671	11.8
1890	82,717	646,591	12.8
1900	96,150	730,195	13.2
1910	102,919	794,929	12.9

Sources: Tafeln zur Statistik der oesterreichischen Monarchie 3 (1861), 60; Oesterrieichische Statistik, vol. 1 (1882), no. 2, 108, vol. 32 (1892), no. 1, 127–128, vol. 63 (1902), no. 1, 126–127; Józef Buzek, “Wpływ polityki,” 97; Oesterrieichische Statistik, Neue Folge 1 (1912), no. 1, 92–93; Recensământul general al populatiei româniei, Sabin Manuila (ed.), vol. 2 (București: Imprimeria Națională, 1938), 29; Anuarul statistic al României 1926, 13; Constantin Ungureanu, “Die Bevölkerung der Bukowina (von Besetzung im Jahr 1774 bis zur Revolution 1848),” Romanian Journal of Population Studies 1 (2011), 134–139; Constantin Ungureanu, “Populaţia Bucovinei şi Basarabiei sub stăpâniri imperiale 1775/1812-1918),” Archiva Moldaviae 5 (2013), 87–111.

Until mid-19^th century early censuses (conscriptions) show only slightly quicker growth of the Jews. Firstly, the officials were not able to enumerate the entire population. Missing population is expressed by sudden drops and increases in the counts which cannot be associated with wars or border changes, perhaps with the exception of the 1831 cholera epidemic, and the 1846–1855 series of peasant uprisings, hunger, malaria, typhus and again cholera 2.1.1-Demography-6.

Secondly, in the case of Galicia, migration to other lands, such as Bukovina and Hungary, where Familianten laws did not limit Jewish settlement, effectively compensated for the surplus of high natural increase of the Jews. From the 1850s onwards, the Jewish population in Galicia and Bukovina grew much more quickly. While in Bukovina the growth was still stimulated by the increasing influx of migrants, in Galicia, the rapid growth most likely stemmed from a permanent change in mortality and fertility levels, i.e., the onset of demographic transition, rather than from net migration. Precise tracing of the transition is impossible due to the unavailability of reliable birth and death statistics. According to Krzysztof Zamorski, the total population of Galicia, predominantly non-Jewish, entered this phase in the 1890s. Judging from the trends in population growth, which was clearly faster among the Jews beginning from mid-19^th century, it is likely that the Jews entered the first phase of the transition, stabilization of mortality and its decline, a few decades before the non-Jews. While in the 1880s the non-Jewish population accelerated its growth, that of the Jewish population slowed down. This deceleration may, however, be related not to fertility decrease, but to a higher rate of Jewish emigration from Galicia. Between 1880 and 1910, about 27.7% of persons who emigrated from Galicia were Jewish, i.e., about 2.5 times more than the share of the Jews in the total Galician population.

Table 3. Emigration from Galicia, 1881–1910.

Decade	Jews		Non-Jews		Total
	N	%	N	%	N
1881–1890	36,660	59.7	24,761	40.3	61,421
1891–1900	114,000	37.6	188,826	62.4	302,826
1901–1910	85,844	17.6	402,572	82.4	488,416
Total	236,504	27.7	616,159	72.3	852,663

Note: Estimations based on difference between population growth measured in censuses and natural increase (difference between number of births and deaths). Numbers of Jews who emigrated may be underestimated due to under-registration in vital registration.

Source: Ignacy Weinfeld, Ludność miejska Galicji i jej skład wyznaniowy (1881–1910) (Lwów: Gubrynowicz i syn, 1912), 10–14. See also: Józef Buzek, Rozsiedlenie ludności Galicyi według wyznania i języka (Lwów: I. Związkowa Drukarnia, 1909), 200; Jankowski, Demography of a Shtetl, 37–49.

Earlier demographic transition of the Jews was a common phenomenon in Europe, documented with accurate statistics for Italy, Prussia and Bohemia. While on a biological level reduction of mortality rates strongly depends on improvements in nutrition, food transportation, hygiene, and health care, and reduction of birth rates on the spread of fertility control, demographers have failed to establish a grand theory of the transition. There was no universal correlation between the transition, industrialization and economic change. Each region, rather, had its own peculiarities. Some factors may be pointed out as fostering an earlier onset of the transition among the Jews: significantly higher urbanization, distinct professional structure and language of communication, but also a desire for acculturation and lifestyle change. Which of these played a particular role in Galicia and Bukovina is difficult to test systematically due to the low quality of continuous population registers.

Historians tend to stress the growth of the Jewish population in Galicia and in general in Eastern Europe. The scale of the growth varies, however, between the regions. In Galicia, the Jewish population grew in the 19^th century rather moderately compared to Jewish populations in neighboring regions (fig.3). Indexed growth shows that between 1765, when the first census was enumerated in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, and the mid-19^th century, growth of the Jewish population in Galicia maintained relatively low levels. By 1857, when the first modern and reliable census was enumerated in Galicia, the Jewish population multiplied by 2.4, a level close to Moravia with Austrian Silesia (2.1) and Bohemia (2.8). It was only in the second half of the century when the growth of Galician Jewry accelerated, increasing 6 times in 1910 (compared to 1765), while the size of the Jewish population in Bohemia, Moravia, and the Posen Duchy began to shrink. Nonetheless, Galician growth never came close to the growth of the Jewish population in the Pale of the Settlement (11.4 times in 1913), Congress Poland (11.0 times in 1897), Hungary (16.0 in 1910) and in particular, Bukovina (43.3 times in 1910). The tremendous growth of the two latter lands resulted from mass migration from other Habsburg lands, attracted by few settlement limits and new economic prospects. This internal migration, in turn, contributed to an early decline in population growth in other Habsburg lands.

The overall distribution of the population established in the early modern period did not change during the 19^th century 2.1.1-Demography-8. According to the 1900 census, the share of the Jews in Galicia increased in the southeast direction, while in Bukovina it increased towards the northwest (Map 1). The concentration of the Jews along the border points to a mostly Galician origin of Bukovinian Jewry and to the long-lasting entanglement of the two communities. In 1900, Galician towns with the largest Jewish population (table 4) retained the same ranking they had held in the second half of the 18^th century: Lviv (44,258), Kraków (25,670, including Kazimierz), Przemyśl (14,109).

Table 4. Locations in Galicia with the largest Jewish populations, 1900

Place	Jews		Roman Catholics		Greek Catholics		Other		Total
	N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N
Belz	2,872	56.6	972	19.2	1,231	24.3	0	0.0	5,075
Berezhany	4,395	38.4	4,150	36.3	2,605	22.8	293	2.6	11,443
Bolekhiv	3,323	78.4	596	14.1	212	5.0	106	2.5	4,237
Boryslav	5,950	55.7	2,858	26.7	1,870	17.5	12	0.1	10,690
Brody	11,912	68.6	3,317	19.1	2,092	12.0	40	0.2	17,361
Buchach	6,730	57.2	3,078	26.2	1,948	16.6	0	0.0	11,756
Chortkiv	3,146	61.7	1,302	25.5	601	11.8	50	1.0	5,099
Chrzanów	5,504	54.1	4,647	45.7	7	0.1	12	0.1	10,170
Drohobych	8,683	44.7	5,005	25.8	5,675	29.2	69	0.4	19,432
Gorlice	3,297	51.2	3,047	47.3	82	1.3	11	0.2	6,437
Horodenka	4,255	36.6	1,259	10.8	6,056	52.1	43	0.4	11,613
Horodok	3,547	31.6	3,992	35.5	3,682	32.8	16	0.1	11,237
Hrymayliv	2,700	64.7	640	15.3	830	19.9	0	0.0	4,170
Husiatyn	3,648	63.6	1,098	19.1	984	17.2	6	0.1	5,736
Stanislaviv (Ivano-Frankivsk)	14,106	46.4	9,653	31.7	5,952	19.6	699	2.3	30,410
Jarosław	5,705	25.2	12,228	54.0	4,457	19.7	270	1.2	22,660
Kalush	4,323	55.2	1,040	13.3	2,439	31.2	27	0.3	7,829
Kamionka Strumiłowa (Kamianka-Buzka)	3,164	43.3	2,014	27.6	2,079	28.4	53	0.7	7,310
Kniahynin	5,211	37.2	5,327	38.0	3,385	24.2	90	0.6	14,013
Kolomyia	16,417	50.8	9,108	28.2	5,628	17.4	1,205	3.7	32,328
Krakow	25,430	29.8	58,851	69.0	519	0.6	474	0.6	85,274
Kuty	3,137	46.9	1,219	18.2	1,799	26.9	534	8.0	6,689
Lesko	2,701	61.3	1,164	26.4	544	12.3	0	0.0	4,409
Lviv	44,018	28.6	77,239	50.2	29,119	18.9	3,452	2.2	153,828
Mielec	2,819	57.4	2,081	42.4	9	0.2	0	0.0	4,909
Nadvirna	3,644	48.4	1,201	16.0	2,672	35.5	8	0.1	7,525
Nowy Sącz	4,687	29.8	10,568	67.2	252	1.6	217	1.4	15,724
Oświęcim	3,779	55.2	3,029	44.3	19	0.3	14	0.2	6,841
Peremyshliany	2,934	61.9	1,047	22.1	753	15.9	9	0.2	4,743
Pidhaitsi	3,757	64.9	958	16.5	1,074	18.5	1	0.0	5,790
Pidvolochysk	3,779	73.0	794	15.3	593	11.5	10	0.2	5,176
Podgórze	5,422	29.9	12,586	69.3	93	0.5	54	0.3	18,155
Przemyśl	14,109	30.5	21,320	46.1	10,420	22.5	446	1.0	46,295
Rava-Ruska	5,098	57.1	2,377	26.6	1,421	15.9	31	0.3	8,927
Rohatyn	3,143	56.8	1,005	18.2	1,289	23.3	92	1.7	5,529
Rzeszów	6,324	42.1	8,210	54.7	420	2.8	56	0.4	15,010
Sambir	4,794	29.5	8,624	53.0	2,824	17.4	26	0.2	16,268
Sanok	3,072	48.3	2,285	35.9	1,005	15.8	3	0.0	6,365
Skalat	2,791	48.7	1,351	23.6	1,586	27.7	0	0.0	5,728
Sniatyn	4,203	36.5	1,977	17.2	4,896	42.6	424	3.7	11,500
Sokal	3,778	39.3	3,023	31.5	2,795	29.1	13	0.1	9,609
Stryi	8,554	37.9	7,491	33.2	5,903	26.1	632	2.8	22,580
Tarnów	12,484	42.7	16,711	57.1	62	0.2	8	0.0	29,265
Ternopil	13,493	44.4	8,244	27.1	8,583	28.2	95	0.3	30,415
Turka	2,892	47.6	666	11.0	2,522	41.5	0	0.0	6,080
Yavoriv	2,846	28.2	1,078	10.7	6,160	61.0	8	0.1	10,092
Zalishchyky	3,780	63.9	1,306	22.1	660	11.2	170	2.9	5,916
Zbarazh	2,896	34.8	3,218	38.7	2,192	26.4	4	0.0	8,310
Zhovkva	4,008	44.7	2,212	24.7	2,697	30.1	49	0.5	8,966
Zolochiv	5,257	51.8	2,470	24.4	2,397	23.6	19	0.2	10,143

Note: Top 50 locations with the largest Jewish populations. Military population excluded.

Sources: Own calculations based on Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeitet auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900 (Wien: K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerai, 1907), vol. 12–13.

The main difference among the top populated places was the increase in the population of Kolomyia (16,568) and the decline in the rankings of Brody (11,912) and Zhovkva (4,008), which reflect on the one hand the increased importance of the route to Bukovina, where Kolomyia was located, and the progressing concentration of the population in the administrative (non-Jewish) centers on the other hand. In Bukovina, 22.5% of the entire Jewish population resided in the capital city, Chernivtsi (21,587) 2.1.1-Demography-9, the next towns, in terms of the Jews’ population size, were Rădăuți (4,894), Suceava (4,229) and Vyzhnytsia (3,997), a town which also had the highest share of the Jews (89%) in all of Galicia and Bukovina (table 5).

Table 5. Locations in Bukovina with largest Jewish population, 1900

Place	District	Jews		Catholics		Christian Orthodox		Other		Total
		N	%	N	%	N	%	N	%	N
Arbora	Solca	363	6.4	444	7.8	4,574	80.9	276	4.9	5,657
Banyliv	Putyla	1,016	19.8	325	6.3	3,785	73.8	2	0.0	5,128
Banyliv-Pidhirnyi	Storozhynets	659	13.7	820	17.1	3,326	69.2	1	0.0	4,806
Berehomet	Vyzhnytsia	749	18.6	139	3.5	3,110	77.3	26	0.6	4,024
Boiany	Sadhora	1,097	16.4	1,645	24.6	3,952	59.0	1	0.0	6,695
Câmpulung Moldovenesc	Câmpulung Moldovenesc	1,654	20.6	1,559	19.4	4,716	58.7	99	1.2	8,028
Chernivtsi	Chernivtsi	21,587	31.9	26,780	39.6	15,621	23.1	3,634	5.4	67,622
Chudei	Storozhynets	520	20.0	343	13.2	1,721	66.3	10	0.4	2,594
Gura Humorului	Gura Humorului	1,457	35.9	1,924	47.4	599	14.7	83	2.0	4,063
Hlyboka	Siret	307	6.9	761	17.2	2,903	65.5	458	10.3	4,429
Ispas	Vyzhnytsia	321	7.1	195	4.3	3,975	88.5	0	0.0	4,491
Iţcani	Suchava	578	41.4	587	42.0	136	9.7	95	6.8	1,396
Kitsman	Kitsman	509	10.6	743	15.5	3,523	73.7	7	0.1	4,782
Korytne	Vashkivtsi	575	15.9	30	0.8	3,020	83.3	0.	0.0	3,625
Kostyntsi	Stanestie	395	14.9	11	0.4	2,243	84.7	0	0.0	2,649
Krasna Putna	Storozhynets	319	19.6	101	6.2	1,209	74.2	0	0.0	1,629
Lukavtsi	Vyzhnytsia	524	17.4	188	6.2	2,299	76.2	7	0.2	3,018
Moldoviţa	Câmpulung Moldovenesc	591	18.2	635	19.6	1,927	59.4	93	2.9	3,246
Myhove	Vyzhnytsia	523	19.5	109	4.1	2,042	76.2	5	0.2	2,679
Nova Zhuchka	Sadhora	464	19.7	564	23.9	1,320	56.0	10	0.4	2,358
Novoselytsya	Sadhora	496	38.2	153	11.8	627	48.3	21	1.6	1,297
Nyzhni Stanivtsi	Nyzhni Stanivtsi	881	26.1	219	6.5	2,167	64.2	111	3.3	3,378
Putyla	Putyla	487	26.3	182	9.8	1,182	63.9	0.	0.0	1,851
Rădăuți	Rădăuți	4,894	34.0	4,890	34.0	4,085	28.4	534	3.7	1,4403
Rohozna	Sadhora	1,339	31.3	642	15.0	2,293	53.6	0	0.0	4,274
Sadhora	Sadhora	3,437	76.2	549	12.2	516	11.4	8	0.2	4,510
Seliatyn	Seliatyn	899	19.6	589	12.9	3,077	67.2	13	0.3	4,578
Shepit	Seliatyn	391	11.8	344	10.4	2,554	76.9	34	1.0	3,323
Siret	Siret	3,093	40.6	2,357	31.0	2,089	27.4	75	1.0	7,614
Solca	Solca	281	9.7	1,015	35.2	1,546	53.6	42	1.5	2,884
Stara Zhadova	Storozhynets	499	13.3	164	4.4	3,085	81.9	17	0.5	3,765
Storozhynets	Storozhynets	2,410	36.1	1,576	23.6	2,527	37.9	160	2.4	6,673
Suceava	Suceava	4,229	39.2	3,299	30.6	2,894	26.8	371	3.4	10,793
Toporivtsi	Sadhora	458	8.3	177	3.2	4,905	88.4	6	0.1	5,546
Vama	Câmpulung Moldovenesc	545	13.9	532	13.5	2,672	68.0	182	4.6	3,931
Vashkivtsi	Vashkivtsi	836	16.6	927	18.4	3,274	64.9	10	0.2	5,047
Vasyliv	Zastavna	313	19.6	36	2.2	1,252	78.2	0	0.0	1,601
Vatra Dornei	Vatra Dornei	1,052	20.4	901	17.5	3,014	58.4	192	3.7	5,159
Verenchanka	Verenchanka	354	9.2	372	9.7	3,124	81.1	2	0.1	3,852
Verkhni Stanivtsi	Nyzhni Stanivtsi	132	7.7	4	0.2	1,577	92.1	0	0.0	1,713
Vicovu de Sus	Rădăuți	365	5.3	334	4.8	6,178	89.6	15	0.2	6,892
Vyzhenka	Vyzhnytsia	653	35.0	196	10.5	1,016	54.4	3	0.2	1,868
Vyzhnytsia	Vyzhnytsia	3,997	89.0	332	7.4	147	3.3	14	0.3	4,490
Zastavna	Zastavna	479	11.5	620	14.9	3,060	73.5	3	0.1	4,162

Notes: Locations with Jewish population larger than 300 persons listed.

Military population excluded.

Catholics includes Roman, Greek and Armenian Catholics, Christian Orthodox includes Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox and Lipovans.

Sources: Own calculations based on Gemeindelexikon der im Reichsrate vertretenen Königreiche und Länder. Bearbeitet auf Grund der Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1900 (Wien: K. K. Hof- und Staatsdruckerai, 1907), vol. 12–13.

At the turn of the 20^th century, Bukovina continued to be a highly rural region (Map 2). Only 20% of its population lived in altogether 12 towns in the region. Jews, naturally, were characterized by a higher urbanization level, measured as the proportion of those who lived in towns (51%), compared to the non-Jews (15%). Still, this level was significantly lower than that of Galician Jewry (70%).

Table 6. Urban and rural population in Galicia and Bukovina, 1900

Land	Urban		Rural		All
	N	%	N	%	N
Galicia, 1880
Jews	483,347	70.4	203,249	29.6	686,596
Greek Catholics	265,059	10.5	2,253,349	89.5	2,518,408
Roman Catholics	191,597	8.0	2,215,380	92.0	2,406,977
Other religions	13,464	28.7	33,462	71.3	46,926
Total	1,253,467	21.0	4,705,440	79.0	5,958,907
Galicia, 1900
Jews	566,256	69.8	244,927	30.2	811,183
Greek Catholics	343,559	11.1	276,413	88.9	3,108,972
Roman Catholics	653,647	19.5	2,692,133	80.5	3,345,780
Other religions	14,752	29.5	35,252	70.5	50,004
Total	1,578,214	21.6	5,737,725	78.4	7,315,939
Bukovina, 1900
Jews	49,200	51.2	46,930	48.8	96,130
Christian Orthodox	43,943	8.8	456,198	91.2	500,141
Catholics	46,581	42.2	63,768	57.8	110,349
Other religion	4,996	21.5	18,290	78.5	23,286
Total	144,720	19.8	585,186	80.2	729,906

Sources: Buzek, Rozsiedlenie, 183; Gemeindelexikon, vol. 13.

In general, ruralization of the Jews was mostly apparent in the Carpathians. This was a result of the lack of towns in the highlands, which technically affected the statistics, and also of Jewish adaptation to the local economy, in particular timber production. In some Carpathian districts with relatively large urban centers, such as Dolyna and Skole in Galicia and Câmpulung Moldovenesc in Bukovina, Jews still preferred to reside in the villages. The slowly increasing ruralization of the Jews in Galicia, 30% in 1880 compared to 23% in 1765 in Lesser Poland and Red Ruthenia, does not contradict the general urbanization trend in the area, expressed by the increasing concentration of the Jewish population in large towns (Lviv, Kraków, Chernivtsi). Rather, the ruralization trend presents the other side of the coin, the effort to find new sources of livelihood: villages, like urban centers, became a new frontier, in particular after Jews were allowed to purchase manorial estates in 1865.

A few surviving census lists from urban areas provide rough insights into additional demographic parameters which were not provided in the statistical yearbooks published at the time.

Table 7. Basic family demographics for urban population in Galicia and Bukovina, 1772–1910

Region	Date	Age at marriage		Permanent celibacy	Nuclear families	Population
		Females	Males
		Years	Years	%	%	N
Jews
Zalishchyky and Yazlovets	1772	17.0	18.9	0.0	65.9	1,481
Northern Bukovina	1787	18.4	22.9	2.9	77.2	1,077
Krakow voivodeship	1791	18.5	20.1	0.3	80.2	3,605
Nowy Sącz	1890	23.9	25.4	7.7	n. a.	4,149
Brzozów and Sanok	1900	23.4	23.6	2.0	77.4	1,732
Łańcut	1910	24.6	24.8	0.8	n. a.	1,844
Rzeszów	1910	24.5	26.3	1.8	89.4	8,789
Ternopil	1910	24.6	25.5	1.1	80.2	13,657
Non-Jews
Krakow voivodeship	1791	21.5	24.8	4.5	87.5	13,450

Source: Tomasz M. Jankowski, Census Microdata of Jews, accessed: 25 March 2023; CSV file, version 1.0.

Demographic transition and general modernization in the 19^th century made a deep impact on the Jewish family. Within just over one hundred years, age at marriage rose from 17.5–18.0 to 23.4–24.6 for women and from 18.9–20.1 to 23.6–26.3 for men 2.1.1-Demography-10.

It became much closer to the age at marriage within the non-Jewish population, particularly for women (24.8 in 1900 in total population, 30.1 for men). Increased age limited the effective fertility of the Jews and made marriage lose its universal nature. A small percentage of Jews (approximately 1.1% to 7.7%) reached the age 50 without ever marrying. Such rates may seem low when compared to the non-Jewish population (4.5% in Kraków voivodeship as early as in 1790–1792), but for the Jews would be unthinkable in the eighteenth century. Another gradual change which shaped the Jewish family and made it more similar to non-Jewish ones, was its gradual nuclearization and the disappearance of complex family forms. The rate of single-family households increased from 66%–80% to 77%–89%. The gradual shift of the essential family parameters of the Galicia Jews, as well as earlier demographic transition, also observed in regions of central Europe, cannot, however, be associated only with the acculturation processes occurring at that time. It reflects rather a general need, also shared by the Jews deeply embedded in shtetl life, to adapt to a rapidly changing socio-economic situation.