Page:Mexico and its reconstruction.djvu/30

 registers of all who were born or who died in the republic were available. The first general census was not taken until the close of the nineteenth century but even after that event an authoritative Mexican work declares that "nothing can be asserted honestly about the growth of population of Mexico considering the want of facts and the defectiveness of the few we possess." In spite of this stricture the various estimates that have been made from time to time are presented to indicate, if not the exact conditions, the opinion of those best informed concerning them.

A report to the king in 1793 represented the population as totaling 4,483,529. Humboldt estimated it to be 5,783,750 in 1803. In 1823 it was thought to be about 6,998,337. The census of 1855 put the population at 8,069,046. In 1877-8 it was announced by the government as 10,577,279, an average of 4.89 per square kilometer. The central states such as Aguascalientes and