Demographically dying villages in Georgia („დემოგრაფიულად მომაკვდავი“ სოფლები საქართველოში)
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Date
2021
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Ivane Javakhishvili Tbilisi State University Press
Abstract
Statistical data on the number of villages and their population are provided
by the censuses of population that record the changes which occurred in the
periods between the censuses. Of the categories of villages we have considered,
the most hopeless are the former settlements, hopeless because it is unimaginable
to ever revive them.
The transformation of villages into former settlements accelerated in
the second half of the 20thcentury, when the rural population began to move
intensively from rural to urban areas. During 1970-2002, 69 villages disappeared
from the “statistical map”, while during 2002-2014 their number reached 121. Out
of these 121 villages 11 come to Adjara, 8 to Imereti, 87 to Mtskheta-Mtianeti and
15 to Kartli.
The condition of small villages is also deplorable. Small villages include
villages with 1 to 25 inhabitants. In the long run, the mentioned villages are
threatened with first evacuation and then becoming former villages. According to
the 2002 census, there were 321 small villages in Georgia with a population of
3689 people, i.e. with average 11.5 population in a village. According to the 2014
census, 476 small villages with 5,103 inhabitants were registered, i.e. an average
of 10.7 people in one village. The deplorable condition of the Georgian village can
be seen more clearly from a historical point of view. According to the statistical demographic
materials we surveyed, by 1880 only two out of 600 villages in
Tbilisi province had less than 100 inhabitants and in three villages less than 200
inhabitants. All the rest of them were larger. For comparison: in 1880 the average
population of the village in the Tbilisi province was 874 inhabitants, and in 2014 in
Georgia as a whole - 438, i.e. 2 times less.
Description
• Jaoshvili V. (1996). Population of Georgia. Tb.
• Sakartvelos mosakhleobis 2002 tslis pirveli erovnuli saqoveltao aghtseris shedegebi.
(2003.) tomi I, tbilisi. [Results of the First National Census of Georgia in 2002,
(2003). Volume I, Tbilisi.]
• Yubileynyy Statisticheskiy Yezhegodnik, (1977). Narodnoye khozyaystvo Gruzinskoy
SSR Tb., [Anniversary Statistical Yearbook, (1977.) National economy of the Georgian
SSR. Tbilisi.] (in Russian)
• Sbornik svedenii o Kavkaze (1885). c. [Collection of Information about the Caucasus,
(1885.) T. IX, pp.413-43, Tiflis.] (in Russian)
• Geostat.ge
Keywords
Villages in the past; devastated villages; small villages; large villages
Citation
Economics and Business, №4, 2021, pp. 184-194