Page "Athenian democracy" Paragraph 6

Estimates of the population of ancient Athens vary.

During the 4th century BC, there may well have been some 250, 000 – 300, 000 people in Attica.

Citizen families may have amounted to 100, 000 people and out of these some 30, 000 will have been the adult male citizens entitled to vote in the assembly.

In the mid-5th century the number of adult male citizens was perhaps as high as 60, 000, but this number fell precipitously during the Peloponnesian War.

This slump was permanent due to the introduction of a stricter definition of citizen described below.

From a modern perspective these figures may seem small, but in the world of Greek city-states Athens was huge: most of the thousand or so Greek cities could only muster 1000 – 1500 adult male citizens and Corinth, a major power, had at most 15, 000 but in some very seldom cases more.