Demographic history of the Vilnius region

The city of Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and its surrounding region has a long history. The Vilnius Region has been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Lithuanian state's founding in the late Middle Ages to its destruction in 1795, i.e. five centuries. From then, the region was occupied by the Russian Empire until 1915, when the German Empire invaded it. After 1918 and throughout the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, Vilnius was disputed between the Republic of Lithuania and the Second Polish Republic. After the city was seized by the Republic of Central Lithuania with Żeligowski's Mutiny, the city was part of Poland throughout the Interwar period. Regardless, Lithuania claimed Vilnius as its capital. During World War II, the city changed hands many times, and the German occupation resulting in the destruction of Jews in Lithuania. From 1945 to 1990, Vilnius was the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic's capital. From the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Vilnius has been part of Lithuania.

The population has been categorised by linguistic and sometimes also religious indicators. At the end of the 19th century the main languages spoken were Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Yiddish and Russian.^{[citation needed]} Both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity were represented, while a large proportion of the city's inhabitants were Jews.^[vague] The "Lithuanian" element was seen as declining, while the "Slavic" element was increasing.^{[citation needed]}

Census data are available from 1897 onward, although the territorial boundaries and ethnic categorisation have been inconsistent. The Jewish population decreased greatly because of the Holocaust of 1941–44, and subsequently, many Poles were removed^[vague] from the city, but less so from the surrounding countryside. Consequently, recent Census figures show a predominance of Lithuanians in the city of Vilnius, but of Poles in the Vilnius district outside the city.^[vague]