Wider research context / theoretical framework
Historical demography about and in Southeastern Europe is still quite underdeveloped compared to the leading centres of such research situated mainly in Northwestern Europe. Historical overviews of this region often deal with historical demography very peripherally. There is no publication available yet which deals exclusively with the population development in Southeastern Europe during the last two centuries, there are only publications about the population history or historical demography of single countries or the whole of Europe, but not about Southeastern Europe as a region. Quantitative analyses of regional variations in historical demography within a country and between different occupational groups have been based mainly on the only existing representative database of rural and urban populations in Southeastern Europe: the Albanian population census of 1918. This proposed project would open up the possibility to do similar research in other countries of this region and to compare them.

Hypotheses / research questions / objectives
How much regional variation was there historically in fertility and nuptiality in Southeastern Europe?
How much regional variation was there historically in household structures and co-residence patterns in Southeastern Europe?
How much regional variation was there in familial patriarchy?
How much difference show different occupational groups concerning marriage and household formation and finally fertility?
Which factors had a major effect on these variations?

Approach / methods
The coding of the microdata will be based on already established coding schemes (IPUMS, NAPP, Mosaic, HISCO). Historical demographic analysis will use the Child-Woman-Ratio, the Singulate Mean Age at Marriage, the proportions never married, the age difference between spouses, the Patriarchy Index, and coresidence measures of dyadic relationships (who lives with whom).

Level of originality / innovation
This intended project would create the largest historical microdata collection outside of the already established centres of historical demographic research in Europe. Analysis based on this massively enhanced database will help to bring more light into the missing areas of comparative historical demography, household structures, and familial patriarchy. Data sharing and collaboration should be promoted and the gap between research done at the national and local levels should be filled. The proposed project would foster research possibilities because the data will be available open access.