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Until the first census of 1801 there was no national record of population size. Estimates have to be made by reference to other records, and the use of various methods of
extrapolating from these data. These include Muster Rolls, and Parish Records such as Baptisms and Burials.
During the Bronze Age (c1,500BC) the population of Britain is thought to have been under 250,000.
By the time of the the Roman occupation (43-410AD) it is thought to have been just over 1 million.
The population of England at the time of the Domesday Survey (1086) is believed to have been 1-2 million.
It may have grown to around 4-6 million by 1300, but a series of problems, including shortage of food and inflation (c1300), several years of cold wet weather
(1310-1316), and sickness (possibly "foot and mouth" disease) in oxen (1316-1318), resulted in the "Great Famine", when 10% of the population (maybe 50,000 people) died. There was some recovery in
the 1320s, as revealed by the 1327 Poll Tax records.
The "Black Death" (plague) of 1348 (starting in Weymouth on 25th June, but spreading to London by the winter) resulted in further huge loss of life, with
an estimated 30%-50% of the population dying. There were further outbreaks of plague through the 14th century, and by 1400 the population had probably dropped to around 2-3 million people.
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