Statistical data on the number of villages and their population are provided by the censuses of the population that record the changes which occurred in the periods between the censuses. Of the categories of villages we have considered, the most hopeless is the former settlements,  hopeless because it is unimaginable to ever revive them.                 

         The transformation of villages into former settlements accelerated in the second half of the 20^thcentury when the rural population began to move intensively from rural to urban areas. During 1970-2002, 69 villages disappeared from the “statistical map”, while during 2002-2014 their number reached 121. Out of these 121 villages, 11 come to Adjara, 8 to Imereti, 87 to Mtskheta-Mtianeti, and 15 to Kartli.

         The condition of small villages is also deplorable. Small villages include villages with 1 to 25 inhabitants.  In the long run, the mentioned villages are threatened with the first evacuation and then becoming former villages. According to the 2002 census, there were 321 small villages in Georgia with a population of 3689 people, i.e. with an average of 11.5 population in a village. According to the 2014 census, 476 small villages with 5,103 inhabitants were registered, i.e. an average of 10.7 people in one village. The deplorable condition of the Georgian village can be seen more clearly from a historical point of view. According to the statistical-demographic materials we surveyed, by 1880 only two out of 600 villages in Tbilisi province had less than 100 inhabitants and in three villages less than 200 inhabitants. All the rest of them were larger. For comparison: in 1880 the average population of the village in the Tbilisi province was 874 inhabitants, and in 2014 in Georgia as a whole - 438, i.e. 2 times less.

Keywords: Villages in the past; devastated villages; small villages; large villages.

JEL Codes: Q50, Q56, R23