Quote:
Originally Posted by Chase Unperson
How about Paris?
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In Paris a 5 mi² square centered on Place du Châtelet would contain approximately 300,000 people. That's a bit less than downtown Manhattan, but this most central area of Paris is not the most densely inhabited part of Paris (it contains lots of offices, plus some parks and large uninhabited palaces like the Tuileries, the Louvre, the Luxembourg gardens, etc.). Real Parisian life also doesn't actually take place in that central 5 mi² square (this is touristland, plus some offices and museums). Real Parisian life rather takes place in a ring surrounding that 5 mi² square.
Slightly different, but I made this map below a few years ago. The four colored areas show the extent of urbanization in Paris before the Industrial Revolution. In other words, back in the end of the 18th century, the built-up area of Paris did not extend further than those 4 colored areas (Jefferson lived in the western-most part of the orange area, which at the time was an almost suburban and airy new district of the hyper dense city, immediately bordering the countryside, a bit like Belgravia in London back then).
These 4 colored areas cover a land area of exactly 4.0 mi². So it's a bit smaller than 5 mi². Within these 4 mi² there lived 221,892 people at the 2007 census. I haven't updated it since the 2007 census.
This most central area of Paris had a population of 500,000 inh. at the 1806 census. The population in this most central area (the 4 colored areas) peaked at the 1846 census (just before the start of Haussmannization), with a record 670,000 inhabitants (i.e. 167,000 ppsm). Then it declined continuously after 1846. At the 1999 census, only 216,700 people were left in those 4 mi² (during those 153 years, many buildings were either demolished by Haussmannization, or converted into offices).
Since 1999, the central areas of French cities have started to grow again, same as is seen in most of the rest of the Western world. In Paris, even this most central area has started to grow again, with a gain of 5,000 inhabitants between the 1999 and 2007 census, which is perhaps modest, but nonetheless quite impressive for such a central and historic area that has been completely built-up for more than 200 years already. The population density in 2007 in those 4 mi² was thus 55,420 ppsm (again, not the highest you can find in Paris; Paris reaches densities of 155,000 ppsm in several outer arrondissements, in particular around Belleville and at the northern foot of Montmartre Hill).
Orange: Rive Droite (Right Bank), known as the "Ville" back in the Middle Ages
Green: Isle of the Cité, known as the "Cité" ("City") back in the Middle Ages
Blue: Rive Gauche (Left Bank), known as the "Université" ("University") back in the Middle Ages
Red: St Louis Island, urbanized after the Middle Ages
The "Ville" was the commercial heart of Paris, the "City" was the administrative, royal, and religious heart of Paris, and the "University" was the educational and scholar heart of Paris, as the name implies (the "University" was also the largest producer of manuscripts in Medieval Europe, with the largest concentration of copyists, illuminators, and book sellers in Europe at the time). This business division of Paris still exists today to a large extent (the Right Bank is distinctly more busy and businesslike than the Left Bank, the Left Bank is more intellectual, and the Cité is a sort of US civic center devoid of local residents).
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