|
Cyprus Internal Migration
Major demographic changes could also be seen in the
distribution of the population between urban and rural
areas in the
past fifty years. From 1881 to 1911 there was almost no
internal
migration, and the rural population constituted 81 percent
of the
total. The first change was noted in the 1931 census, when
22
percent of the population was classified as town dwellers.
In the
following decades, especially in the period 1946-60, the
urban
proportion grew increasingly rapidly; the urban population
increased by 78 percent in that period, while that of
rural areas
grew by only 10 percent. Some 36 percent of the island's
population
was concentrated in towns in 1960. The urban share
increased to 42
percent by 1973. In this same period, the rural population
actually
declined by 0.7 percent.
Following the displacement of one-third of the
population in
1974, the urban population in the government-controlled
area rose
to 52 percent in 1976 and 63.5 percent in 1983.
Urbanization did
not abate in the following years, for in 1986 fully 64
percent of
the population living in government-controlled areas of
Cyprus was
urban-based. According to the republic's 1988 Demographic
Report
for those areas controlled by the government, 363,000
persons lived
in urban areas and 199,300 in rural areas. Such a
phenomenal change
in the island's demographic composition could not fail to
have
significant repercussions in all areas of life.
The Nicosia district, historically the largest of the
island's
six districts, continued to expand at a faster rate than
the other
districts. In 1881 its population constituted 30 percent
of the
total; in 1973, it constituted 37 percent, and in 1986, it
was up
to 42 percent. In the late 1980s, its population was
estimated at
234,000, despite the fact that a large part of Nicosia is
in the
occupied north; Limassol, the second largest district, had
91,500;
Paphos, 49,500; and Famagusta, most of which is under
Turkish
occupation, 29,100.
Data as of January 1991
|
