Talk:Demographics of Lithuania

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Demographics of Lithuania is within the scope of WikiProject Lithuania, an attempt to build a comprehensive and detailed guide to Lithuania on Wikipedia. To participate simply edit the article or see our to-do list. On the project page we have some tools to help you out. Don't hesitate to ask questions!
Start This article has been rated as Start-Class on the quality scale.
Top This article has been rated as Top-importance on the importance scale.
Comments Please leave a short summary to explain the ratings and to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the article.

[edit] Old talk

Your source for the highest divorce rate in Europe (2004) as being Lithuania's is not completely true. The source actually says that Lithuania tied the Czechs for the same rate of divorce that year. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.160.33.172 (talk) 04:25, 29 October 2007 (UTC)


Imo it's a time to upgrade/renew some facts stated here because soem of them here are too old (even 5 years old). As for excample age structure: 0-14 years: 16.1% (male 297,271/female 282,269), 15-64 years: 68.7% (male 1,206,731/female 1,264,359), 65 years and over: 15.2% (male 186,979/female 359,008) (2005 est.)

Please explain where you are getting the adjuted statistics from--nixie 10:45, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

See www.std.lt -> pick English version. You will see yourself that polish figures are false. 85.206.195.99 13:01, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

I've corrected the 2000 CIA factbook ethnic data to reflect the 2001 Lithuanian census. Lysy 17:32, 3 May 2005 (UTC)

The Balts lived between Oder and Vistula rivers and Moscow region. Please don't falsify a history. Zivinbudas 07:57, 8 May 2005 (UTC)

What?! When? Where? Before the Slavs came there? Halibutt 14:36, May 17, 2005 (UTC)

Exactly. Zivinbudas 09:38, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Yes that is true. There was a Slavic expansion later and the diminishing of Baltic territory. Similar thing happened to other language groups too, e.g. Celtic which once covered much larger territories than it does now and such, I believe Fino-Ugric was way larger too once if I am correct. I have a map of the changing territory of Baltic tribes. DeirYassin 09:49, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

Hmmm... are there any proofs that the pre-Slavic tribes in those areas spoke Baltic languages? Seems strange, especially that writing arrived to our part of Europe much later... Halibutt 12:16, May 19, 2005 (UTC)

Did you ever hear such words as toponymy, hydronymy, historical linguistics, historical geography, anthroponymy, archeology, anthropology? No? I see you know only "Historia Polski. Klasa 10. Warszawa, 1935". Zivinbudas 15:02, 19 May 2005 (UTC)

You don't have to offend me, just present arguments. By the way, I've been studying onomastics for quite some time. And I can't think of any notable toponym in the area of Oder estuary that would bear at least distant resemblance to Baltic languages. Perhaps I'm wrong, but you'll need to post at least some examples to convince me. Examples of offensive language do not convince anyone.
As to archaeological findings in the area - I heard of none that would prove your point. Again, I'm not an expert on pre-history of Pomerania, but it seems that it is highly unlikely that there were Baltic tribes there before ca. 6th century, that is before the Slavs came there. There were indeed Prussians and Yotvingians to the east of Vistula, but to the west of it? Unless of course you treat the Rope culture (ca. 3rd millenium BC) to be an example of Baltic tribe, but these lived also in Denmark and northern Germany. Also, the lietuva.lt site confirms what I've been taugth, that the Baltic tribes were pushed by the Goths to the present-day Lithuania from the east in approximately 2nd century. However, these are rather unknown and the first easily recognizable traces of distinct Baltic tribes in the area of modern Baltic states date back to 6th-7th centuries. But where are those Baltic tribes living between Oder and Vistula as well?
As to historical linguistics - I didn't know there were written sources in Baltic languages dating back to 7th century. First written documents in Lithuanian appeared in 16th century, the first Prussian words were mentioned around 1400, Galindian was long gone before it could be put down. The Prussian vocabulary (ca. 800 words altogether) was written in 13th century. So how come you can use historical linguistics to prove that the Balts lived between Vistula and Oder? You can prove that the modern Baltic languages had a common ancestor, but not the geographical distribution of historical languages that were spoken before the writing arrived there.
As to anthropology - the matter is related to archaeology. Please provide some backup. Names of the excavation sites should suffice, I can check them myself. As to historical geography - indeed, I don't know what does this term specifically refer to. Halibutt 18:58, May 19, 2005 (UTC)


BTW, indeed, the Baltic area was diminished, mostly by Slavic expansion in Masovia and then German drive through Prussia, but in Pomerania? Seems unlikely. Halibutt

The Balts lived in Pamarė (Pomerania) since 3,000 BC. The territory was to Oder river in the West and at least to Varta and Nuoteka rivers in the South. This is proved by huge amount of Baltic hydronyms and toponyms in this teritory. The most famous hydronyms are mentioned above Varta and Nuoteka rivers and Persantė river in the North. The most famous toponyms are Karwen, Labehn, Labuhn, Powalken, Saulin and Santaka (Santok) - Confluence (English) in confluence of Varta and Nuoteka rivers. German linguist Hermann Schall even claims that Baltic toponyms are to the West of Oder as well - until Elbe river in Saxony and in island of Rugen. He states that name of Berlin is of Baltic origin. These factes are confirmed by archeology as well -> See: Marija Gimbutas. The Balts (you can see and order this book on www.amazon.com). German tribes arrived to Pamarė (Pomerania) only in 8th century BC from Scandinavia and mixed with Pomeranian Balts tribes. They pushed Baltic tribes to the East and Balts retreated to Alna river. In apx. 1th century AD Germans (Goths) left Baltic Sea coast and went to the South-East. Then Balts returned to old places near Vistula, but they didn't exceed Vistula river to the West. Zivinbudas 21:26, 20 May 2005 (UTC)


I would suggest to reconsider the sentence "Lithuania is one of the most literate countries in the world". Is there enough evidence for that? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 81.110.32.149 (talk) 21:40, 7 November 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Historical data

It would be nice to have some data on Lithuanian population in history. For example: what was the Lithuanian population in 1945, 1940, 1922, 1918, 1795, 1569 and so on... --Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk 20:35, 13 March 2008 (UTC)