Vilnius, Šiauliai and Kaunas have seen the fastest population growth in 25 years, the Centre of Registers reported on Monday.
According to the data of January 1, compared to the data of the same day in 2000, in Vilnius city there are currently almost 190 thousand more people who have declared their place of residence, in Šiauliai – 15,3 thousand more residents, Beautiful – 14,8 thousand.
Among the fastest growing are also Klaipeda, where the population increased by 11,9 thousand, and Palanga, where 6,1 thousand more people declared their place of residence.
According to Kazys Maksvytis, Director of Register Management at the Registers Centre, there is a noticeable trend that, apart from large cities, settlements located near them have grown the fastest.
"Among these, Dercekliai in the Klaipėda district can be mentioned, where in the early 2000s a little more than 60 people had declared their place of residence, and currently there are more than 4 thousand of them. It is also worth mentioning in Vilnius district "Riešė is located, where the population has increased tenfold to 4,5 thousand in a quarter of a century," he says.
Among the fastest growing settlements are the city of Gargždai, where 3,5 thousand more residents were recorded, Giraitė in the Kaunas district with an additional 3,4 thousand residents, and Trušeliai in the Klaipėda district, where about 2000 people declared their place of residence in the early 70s, and currently their number reaches almost 3,4 thousand.
In the category of small towns, over the past 25 years, the population has grown the most in Jašiūnai, located in the Šalčininkai district – from 160 residents at the beginning of the 2000s to 2,5 thousand residents at the beginning of this year.
According to the Center of Registers, it is likely that this population change is related to the redistribution of administrative units of the territory, as the nearby village of Jašiūnai lost 1,6 thousand residents during the same period.
In the category of single-family homes, the Klevinė single-family home in the Vilnius district stands out, where at the beginning of this millennium ten residents were declared, and currently their number has exceeded a thousand.
Among the residential areas that have decreased the most in terms of population over the past 25 years are Panevėžys, where 14,9 thousand fewer residents declared their place of residence, as well as Alytus – 5 thousand, Biržai – 2,3 thousand, Rokiškis – 2,1 thousand, Visaginas – 1,9 thousand and Telšiai – 1,8 thousand fewer residents.
In smaller settlements, the decline in population can be associated both with changes in the administrative units of the territory, and with migration or natural population change, according to the Center of Registers.
Among the Lithuanian villages that have lost the most population over the past 25 years is the previously mentioned Jašiūnai village in Šalčininkai district - 1,6 thousand fewer inhabitants, as well as Šalčininkai village, which lost almost 700 inhabitants, likely for the same reasons, and Didžiasalis village in the Ignalina district, which lost 500 inhabitants.
Among the towns, the population decreased the most during the analyzed period in Baisogala in Radviliškis district – 425 residents, in Merkinė, Varėna district – 425, in Krekenava, Panevėžys district – 370, in Pilviškės town in Vilkaviškis district – 370, and in Žemaičių Naumiestis in Šilutė district – 350.
According to the Population Register, just over 3 million residents have currently declared their place of residence in Lithuania.
Of these, more than 2 million are declared in cities, about 840 thousand in villages, about 140 thousand in towns, and about 10 thousand in single-family homes.
According to data provided by the Center of Registers, the largest settlements in terms of population are the country's major cities of Vilnius (612 thousand inhabitants), Kaunas (311,5 thousand), Klaipėda (165 thousand), Šiauliai (117 thousand), Panevėžys (88 thousand), Alytus (51 thousand) and Marijampolė (36,5 thousand).
Among the villages, the largest are currently Domeikava, Kaunas district (6 thousand inhabitants), Riešė, Vilnius district (4,5 thousand), Raudondvaris, Kaunas district (4,3 thousand), Dercekliai, Klaipėda district (4,2 thousand), Skaidiškės, Vilnius district (4,1 thousand), Ramučiai, Kaunas district (4,1 thousand), Ringaudai, Kaunas district (3,9 thousand), Rudamina, Vilnius district (3,8 thousand), Giraitė, Kaunas district (3,8 thousand) and Užliedžiai, Kaunas district (3,4 thousand).
In the township category, the largest population is in the Akademijos township in the Kaunas district (3,7 thousand inhabitants), Jašiūnai in the Šalčininkai district (2,5 thousand), Rukla in the Jonava district (2,1 thousand), Pilviškės township in the Vilkaviškis district (2 thousand) and Mickūnai in the Vilnius district (1,8 thousand).
The most populated single-family homes are Klevinė (1,1 thousand inhabitants) and Raisteniškės (0,6 thousand) in the Vilnius district, Klausmyliai (335) in the Klaipėda district, and Žemieji Rusokai and Dvariškiai (almost 300 each) in the Vilnius district.
The author is Karolina Ambrazaitytė
[email protected], Lithuanian news department