| Year
1000 |
During
the Arab domination,
the Arab Governor of Bronte's settlements sends to the
emir of Catania a rapport with the results of a census,
according to which such settlements count 1658
inhabitants,
of which 994 Muslim and 664 Christians (more Arabs than brontese,
but maybe the local people escaped from control not
to pay fiscal impositions or the notorious
gabelle
(rural taxes).
A document of 1094 mentions for the first time the Greek name
of "Brontimene" as boundary between two very
large estates.
|
| 1375 |
In
that year, according to an estimate, the population of Bronte
district subjected to pay tax was of 300 people (one hundred fires,
calculating four or five persons per for each family or fire). |
| 1442
- 1491 |
In 1442 were calculated 360
souls (90 fires); the feudatories,
having increased the wheat price, encouraged the emigration
towards Sicily.
Even the Bronte' territory received in that period a notable representation of
Albanians
that populated the farmhouses which had been emptied by wars, earthquakes and plagues. |
| 1535 |
The union of
Farmhouses (1535 – 1548)
brings the population of Bronte from 500 to about 3.000
inhabitants.
|
XV
Century |
In
this century were made in Bronte five official census:
-- In
the first census of 1548,
ordered by Carlo V and carried out by the viceroy Lopez De
Vega, Bronte had from 2.815 to 3.545 inhabitants with 709
habitation's
houses or fires (four or five inhabitants for fire).
-- With
the second of 1570
the town counted 3.558
inhabitants (870 fires)
-- with that of 1583, ordered
by the viceroy Marcantonio Colonna, had 3.646 inhabitants of which 1.882 males and 1.764 females ( existed
also 36 horses, 66 mares, 559 plough oxen and 203 cows ).
-- With those of 1593 and 1595
counted respectively 2.603 and 2.815.
In a decade, the famine, the recurring epidemics and malarial fevers and
the exodus of many brontese people towards other places
had depopulated the town. |
XVI
Century |
In the census
of 1639 Bronte
has 9.138 inhabitants (3.968 male and 5.170
female).
In that of 1653 were 7.151
(3.514 male, of which 1.488 from 18 to 50 years, and 3.637
female).
In that period nearly 3.000 persons emigrated from Bronte because of a terrible
and long eruption (1651-1654) that devastated our town.
After few decades (in 1693) a terrible earthquake (that
ruined the Benedictine Abbey of
Santa Maria di Maniace and knocked down the apse of the
church)
shook and destroyed many houses in Bronte. |
| XVII
Century |
In this century were made in Bronte three official
census:
-- in 1714,
under the kingdom of Vittorio Amedeo II of
Savoy,
the town was composed by 6.936
inhabitants (3.411 male and 3.525 female); had also 116
horses, 331 mares, 508 bovines and 524 "plough cows";
-- in 1748,
under Carlo III, had about 8.000, with 1.924 habitation
houses;
-- in 1798,
under Ferdinando III, counted 9.200
inhabitants, in spite of the famine of the 1764 and of the many
deaths.
Few months later Bronte and its citizens, that had, with
great sacrifices, been released from the Palermo Hospital, were given in gift by the Bourbon king
Ferdinando to the admiral Horatio
Nelson
|
| XVIII
Century |
In this century the brontese population increased gradually up to
equal the present number of inhabitants:
-- in 1806
they were 9.387
-- in 1831
they were 8.871
-- in 1852,
few years before the tragic
facts of 1860, reached the number of nearly 11.000
inhabitants, with 7.949 houses.
In three successive censuses of the Kingdom population
resulted:
-- in 1861 12.920
inhabitants
-- in 1871 14.589
inhabitants
-- in 1881 16.616
inhabitants.
(Gesualdo
De Luca writes that "resulted over 17.000, although citizens, reputed well informed, affirm
to be inferior to the true number of people; as was preferred not to mention the children number for old
prejudices of possible increment of taxes and other impositions" (History
of the City of Bronte, 1883).
Although
there was a mortal
cholera
epidemic in 1887 (450 people died) the trend of growth continued also during
the successive years.
In 1898 the population of
Bronte reached the number of 21.405 inhabitants.
|
XIX
Century |
Some official censuses carried out in this century give the
following results that remained more or less constant for all of the century:
- 1901 20.166 inhabitants
- 1911 18.260 inhabitants
- 1921
20.284 inhabitants
- 1931
18.253 inhabitants
- 1936
17.918 inhabitants
- 1951
20.791 inhabitants
- 1961
21.619 inhabitants
Benedetto
Radice writes that in the census of 1911 the population
was deliberately diminished "for local, personal,
politic, ecclesiastic reasons, with the complicity of some
elementary school teachers to whom the census was entrusted ". |
| January
2001 |
This is the population residing in Bronte at the 1st
January 2001 for age and sex:
|
Age |
males |
females |
total |
|
from 0 to 10 anni |
1.344 |
1.343 |
2.687 |
|
from 11 to 20 anni |
1.340 |
1.314 |
2.654 |
|
from 21 to 30 anni |
1.405 |
1.451 |
2.856 |
|
from 31 to 40 anni |
1.454 |
1.558 |
3.012 |
|
from 41 to 60 anni |
2.021 |
2.156 |
4.177 |
|
from 61 to 80 anni |
1.615 |
2.006 |
3.621 |
|
from 81 years onwards |
248 |
397 |
645 |
|
|
9.427 |
10.225 |
19.652 |
Some curiosities:
Females are more in numbers than men: +798 ( 52,1%, nationally were 51,5%),
the unmarried males however, are more than the women: 4.355
against 4.186 females still singles.
That is due to an inverted trend related to age. Young boys,
up to 20 years of age, are actually more than the girls,
even if for a small difference (+27) and due to the
greater number of widows (1.117) and divorced (44) respect to
male widows
(217) and divorced (23).
Population density per square Km. is 74,0 (292,9%
the medium density in the Catania's province ).
In our town live only three elders with more than 100 years of
age (two females and one man).
The age with greater number of residents is of 25 years (321).
|
| September
2002 |
A noticeable decrease in respect of January 2001 (-926), in the
month of September 2002 the
resident population in Bronte was 18.726, so divided
for sex and age (data from registry Office):
|
Age |
males |
females |
total |
|
from 0 to 10 anni |
1.201 |
1.200 |
2.401 |
|
from 11 to 20 anni |
1.309 |
1.248 |
2.557 |
|
from 21 to 30 anni |
1.243 |
1.440 |
2.683 |
|
from 31 to 40 anni |
1.345 |
1.308 |
2.653 |
|
from 41 to 60 anni |
2.044 |
2.203 |
4.247 |
|
from 61 to 80 anni |
1.575 |
1.935 |
3.510 |
|
from 81 years onwards |
255 |
420 |
675 |
|
|
8.972 |
9.754 |
18.726 |
The
number of families: 6.688 (of which 1.565 composed by one only
component and 1.546 by two). The oldest person: a widow of 98
years of age; 27 the class of age with the greatest number of
residents (291).
|