towns, 2,706 communes, and 13,149 villages. Of the towns, the
forty-seven most important were classified as municipalities, and the
communes included 145 that were suburban areas of the larger towns (see
ch. 8).

POPULATION

The area approximating that defined by the 1971 boundaries of the
country had a population estimated at about 8.2 million in 1860. Thirty
years later it had increased to about 10 million. Growth began to
accelerate slightly after 1890, with periods of greatest increases
between 1930 and 1941 and between 1948 and 1956, until it reached an
estimated 20.6 million in 1971.

The 1971 estimate was derived from the 1966 census and projected from
vital statistics compiled locally through 1970. On this basis the
estimated annual rate of growth was 1.3 percent, exceeded in Europe only
by that of Albania. Density of the population was 224 persons per square
mile. Projected at the 1971 growth rate, the population in 1985 would be
23.3 million, and it would take fifty-four years for the population of
the country to double.

The 1971 growth rate, however, may not be maintained. Legislation
enacted in 1966 stringently restricted abortions and discouraged birth
control practices, resulting in an increased birth rate for the next few
years, but by 1971 there were indications that the rate was again
declining. Unofficially, it is expected that the population will reach
only 25.75 million by the year 2000, or about 27 percent more than in
1970. The projection is based on a growth rate of less than that of the
1970-71 period. It is expected to average about 1.1 percent for the
1971-75 five-year period and to decrease thereafter, resulting in an
average of between 0.7 and 0.8 percent over the entire period. Moreover,
the increase is expected to be far greater in the over-sixty age group
and to provide only about 14 percent more workers in the productive age
brackets between fifteen and fifty-nine.

In 1970 the birth rate, at 23.3 births per 1,000 of the population, was
also exceeded only by Albania's in all of Europe. The rate of infant
mortality, at 54.9 deaths during the first year of life for each 1,000
live births, was slightly lower than those of Yugoslavia and Portugal
and was exceeded significantly only by that of Albania. The death rate,
at 10.1 per 1,000 was very close to the overall European rate of ten per
1,000.

According to the 1971 official estimate there were 10.1 million males
and 10.4 milli