Population—Its Density.
In the Statistical Annuary corresponding to the year 1891 the population of the Republic has been calculated thus:
In the year 1829 the population of the Republic was 74,000 souls, and in the year 1879, 438,245.
The increase of the population has produced itself according to the following proportions:
| In 1882 | .. | 505,207 | inhabitants. |
| 1883 | .. | 520,536 | " |
| 1884 | .. | 559,668 | " |
| 1885 | .. | 582,858 | " |
| 1886 | .. | 596,463 | " |
| 1887 | .. | 614,257 | " |
| 1888 | .. | 648,297 | " |
| 1889 | .. | 683,943 | " |
| 1890 | .. | 706,524 | " |
| 1891 | .. | 708,168 | " |
The increase of the population during the year 1891, if compared with the population in 1879, is of 269,923 souls, that is to say, 61.59 per cent.
If we add to the total of inhabitants during the year 1891 a 6 per cent. on account of the omissions which probably took place in the calculations (omission of inscriptions of births, of declarations in the lists of passengers, etc.), we have a population for the whole Republic of, more or less, 750,658 inhabitants.
Dividing the population into nationalities we see that out of a hundred inhabitants there are 70 natives and 30 foreigners. In Montevideo, however, the proportion varies, being of 53 natives and 47 foreigners.
The density of the population throughout the Republic is of 3.78 inhabitants for each square kilometre.
The Department of Montevideo, which has the smallest superficial area, is the most peopled of all the Republic, (353.44 inhabitants for each square kilometre); in it resides nearly the third part of the population of the country. Next to Montevideo, the Department of Canelones is the most peopled, (13.63 inhabitants for each square kilometre.)
The above mentioned results are an evident proof that the territory of the Republic is still very little peopled, and that there is very easily room enough in it for many millions of inhabitants.
Although the density of the population be but of 3.78 inhabitants for each square kilometre, it is, however, superior to the density of the population in the Argentine Republic, Brazil, Peru, Bolivia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay and Nicaragua, none of which get to that figure.