White Carniola – the demographic particularity of Carniola

A comparative analysis of the movement of the population of the political district of Črnomelj in the period of Austrian national population censuses, 1880–1910; women’s perspective

Abstract

The political district of Črnomelj lagged behind the contemporary modernisation processes in the period of the final Austrian population censuses, 1880–1910. Being only indirectly affected by modernisation, it found itself in a specific situation compared to other parts of Carniola and certain other Slovenian provinces, especially by virtue of population movement and gainful occupation of women. The comparative peculiarity of the Črnomelj district is manifested in rising fertility rate, low newborn and infant mortality rates, which as such pose a specific research challenge even in broader European contexts of contemporary historical demography, as well as in low marriage age, which was, rather uncommonly, associated with the simultaneous high feminisation rate. Particularities in population movement were closely associated with particularities in the economic and occupational structure of the political district.