City size distribution of towns in the 17th century in Lower Silesia

Abstract

This paper attempts to verify the hierarchy of towns in Lower Silesia on the basis of population data from the second decade of the 17th century, assuming that a statistically described distribution law applies. The analysis of the city size distribution was based on Gibrat's law and Zipf's rank‐size rule. This made it possible to verify the assumptions made at the outset and to estimate the population of towns of unknown size and designated rank. The research carried out suggests a revision of the estimates, especially for the largest cities in the region, which tend to be underestimated. Studies have also shown that the method can be extremely useful for verifying uncertain and incomplete historical demographic data.