Population

In the article Settlement and Colonisation we give a brief account of how the population developed here in Madeira when the arduous work of the first colonisation of the island began.

The old chronicles have left us very little information about this settlement, particularly as regards the number, social position, personal qualities and places of origin of the first colonists.

It is known only vaguely that they included individuals of noble descent, others from the common classes, artisans and tillers of the soil, and also some criminals serving their sentences in prison. Gaspar Frutuoso tells us that João Gonçalves Zarco ‘had refused to bring those guilty on account of the faith, or of treason, or for theft’.

The approximate number of these individuals is not known, nor is the proportion in which the various social strata made up these first bands of settlers. It is conjectured, with good reason, that they were not few, and that their number grew soon and rapidly with the frequent arrival of other colonists and, above all, with the great legion of Moorish and black slaves, which soon became a sizeable multitude. This was demanded by the extensive and gruelling work of clearing the virgin land, the energetic cultivators being spurred on by the exuberant fertility of the soil and the exceptionally mild climate.

It was in the second half of the 15th century that settlement expanded more widely, with settlers coming from mainland Portugal, countless African slaves and also many foreigners from various European countries. Some of these came from old families and sought in this new promised land what their own homeland could not give them.

It would be of considerable interest to compile statistics of the population of this archipelago from the earliest days of its colonisation to the present, but we have little material for a complete work of this kind, especially for the 15th century and the first half of the 16th. From the middle of the 16th century onwards, however, compiling such statistics would not be impossible, with results very close to the truth, by drawing on the archives of the parish churches. In all or almost all of them, baptisms, marriages and deaths have been regularly recorded since the third quarter of that century. Such a study is not very difficult for each parish (freguesia), and it would then be easy to carry it out for the whole archipelago. Epidemics and other public calamities aside, a uniform proportion was generally maintained in those periods between the number of inhabitants of a given locality and the number of births and deaths occurring there, so that regular population statistics could be compiled.

Zurara relates that ‘at the time of writing’ there were ‘C L householders’ in Madeira, ‘besides other people who were there, such as merchants, and unmarried men and women, and youths’.

As for Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’), the annotator of the Saudades states that in 1529 the island had more than 800 inhabitants, and Frutuoso asserts that in 1590 there were some 400 households (fogos, literally 'hearths') there, which would mean about 1600 inhabitants. On this statement of Frutuoso’s, Dr Álvaro de Azevedo says: ‘although this seems an exaggeration, since the Annais da Ilha do Porto Santo record that in 1850 the population was 1799 persons, that is, some 450 households, and the census of 1864 that there were 363 households with 1425 inhabitants, we believe Frutuoso’s statement to be accurate; the island of Porto Santo made progress only in the first hundred and fifty years after its discovery; afterwards the scarcity of its natural means of production, the frequent raids of corsairs, and the neglect in which it was left by the donataries, by its wealthiest inhabitants and even by governments, the Marquis of Pombal excepted, condemned it to the state of decline in which it has lain until now.’

The population attributed to Madeira and Porto Santo at different periods is shown in the following table, which draws on the data supplied by the article ‘Madeira’ in the Dicionario Portuguez Ilustrado, on articles scattered through various newspapers and on the most recent population censuses. Years Inhabitants

Years	Inhabitants
1500	16,000
1572	19,172
1580	21,800
1590	29,548
1614	28,345
1679	40,000
1750	59,143
1754	51,143
1767	64,624
1779	70,000
1781	70,443
1794	83,115
1797	97,390
1805	84,364
1813	92,382
1818	96,297
1819	96,752
1825	102,000
1835	113,828
1839	114,147
1843	117,372
1849	108,274
1851	110,340
1854	107,088
1858	98,620
1864	110,349
1871	116,706
1878	130,473
1890	132,088
1900	148,263
1911	167,783
1920	179,002
1930	211,601
1940	249,771

According to the data supplied by the last three censuses, the population of the eleven municipalities of the archipelago is as follows:

1920 1930 1940

Municipality	1920 (inhabitants)	1930 (inhabitants)	1940 (inhabitants)
Funchal	51,996	68,630	87,140
Câmara de Lobos	17,535	21,806	24,500
Ribeira Brava	14,149	16,394	19,382
Ponta do Sol	11,519	13,290	14,911
Calheta	19,760	21,990	23,996
Porto Moniz	4,552	5,062	8,170
São Vicente	9,146	9,684	11,549
Santana	9,778	10,908	14,074
Machico	17,286	17,936	19,749
Santa Cruz	21,038	24,852	26,076
Porto Santo	2,243	2,490	2,701

The population movement of the fifty parishes into which the district is divided, for the same period and according to the statistical data already known, is as follows:

1920 1930 1941

Parish	1920 (inhabitants)	1930 (inhabitants)	1941 (inhabitants)
Sé	2,767	3,127	3,888
São Pedro	8,212	10,594	13,220
Santa Maria Maior	7,592	10,147	12,833
Santa Luzia	5,667	7,484	9,617
São Martinho	6,198	9,439	11,631
Santo António	9,915	11,688	13,567
São Roque	3,241	4,104	5,576
Nossa Senhora do Monte	4,085	5,397	7,467
São Gonçalo	4,319	6,023	9,341
Câmara de Lobos	8,749	11,116	11,692
Curral das Freiras	1,476	1,919	2,168
Estreito de Câmara de Lobos	6,248	7,294	8,575
Quinta Grande	1,062	1,485	1,615
Campanário	4,048	4,852	5,856
Ribeira Brava	5,830	6,959	8,346
Serra de Água	1,783	1,867	2,097
Tabua	2,488	2,665	3,083
Ponta do Sol	6,190	7,153	7,789
Canhas	5,329	6,037	1,386
Madalena do Mar
Arco da Calheta	4,951	5,765	5,824
Calheta	3,894	4,380	5,067
Estreito da Calheta
Jardim do Mar	4,343	4,925	481
Prazeres
Paul do Mar	1,483	1,723	2,143
Fajã da Ovelha	2,562	2,459	2,581
Ponta do Pargo	2,527	2,708	3,054
Achadas da Cruz	430	500	528
Porto Moniz	2,410	2,812	3,412
Ribeira da Janela	571	748	911
Seixal	1,141	1,148	1,319
São Vicente	5,426	5,444	6,383
Ponta Delgada	1,521	1,792	2,033
Boaventura	2,199	2,427	3,133
Arco de São Jorge	651	667	870
São Jorge	2,240	2,522	3,441
Santana	3,123	3,424	4,517
Faial	2,844	3,235	3,809
São Roque do Faial	920	1,062	1,410
Porto da Cruz	5,814	4,388	4,944
Caniçal	657	824	996
Machico	8,619	9,884	10,820
Santo da Serra	2,301	2,378	3,111
Água de Pena	1,242	1,416	1,613
Santa Cruz	7,472	8,856	8,511
Gaula	3,335	3,629	3,753
Camacha	3,965	4,530	5,066
Caniço	4,899	6,265	7,011

Years	Inhabitants
Years	Inhabitants
1864	17,677
1878	19,752
1890	18,778
1909	20,844
1910	24,687
1920	24,238
1930	31,352

The overpopulation now observed in Madeira is not a phenomenon peculiar to our own day. At various times this excess of population has occurred and, combined with other serious circumstances of the moment, it has brought about fearful crises, forcing people to resort to emigration. It would be useful and interesting to produce a detailed study of the causes of these crises, the means adopted to combat them and the beneficial effects that resulted. There can be no doubt that these voluntary expatriations, despite the drawbacks that accompany them, generally have beneficial consequences. Special mention should be made of the large-scale emigration to British Guiana in the middle of the 19th century, which brought this island considerable elements of prosperity. See Emigration.

Of particular interest is the information supplied to us by the Navy and Overseas Archive (Arquivo da Marinha e Ultramar) for the year 1762. It tells us that the then governor and captain-general José Correia de Sá, in a communication to the government in Lisbon on 23 July of that year, reported ‘the departure for Lisbon of various individuals who, owing to the excess of population, were unable to find means of subsistence’.

It is the simple mention of a fact that, over time and with greater or lesser intensity, has been recurring here in Madeira. The problem grows worse day by day and is taking on the most alarming proportions. It has prompted a well-directed campaign in the local press, which ought to command the closest attention of ‘governors and governed’ alike.