in the delivery of the second quarter of 1908 of Bulletin of the Society for the Study of the Hautes-Alpes (Gap, 27th year Third Series, No. 26), Father Paul Guillaume, in an article entitled "Population changes of Hautes-Alpes in the nineteenth century , "Published in tables, counts five-year population by commune and district from 1796 to 1906, compiling the results of censuses taken place between two dates (every five years, except between 1806 and 1826, in 1817 and 1820) and are kept in the departmental archives of Gap. It adds to these official figures the two estimates from 1698 and 1790. The conclusion comes down to this observation:
"From reviewing the results of each count, it is easy to see as the population increases rapidly during the first half of the nineteenth century, at least until 1846 or 1851, but beginning this last time, the motion becomes retrograde and the population decreases to a considerable extent. "
What is true of the Hautes-Alpes is also the township of Needles (Queyras history), where the decay of the population starts rather than in the rest of the department. From Census 1836 (7577 inhabitants cons 7637 five years earlier), the Queyras is steadily losing its population. A careful examination of these figures by district, highlights the very special case shelter, which was the most populated municipality Queyras in the early nineteenth century and whose population has changed in significant proportions in several occasions, sometimes halving or by passing the double. In 1801, the town has 1815 inhabitants. But five years later, she has only 981 inhabitants. Nearly half the population of 1801 has disappeared between censuses. In 1817, the population has hardly increased compared to 1806 and is of 1071 inhabitants. Three years later, in 1820, the town found some residents near the level of 1801 demographics and Abriès is populated by 1803 inhabitants. These abrupt changes recurrence. In 1826, 1868 people are surveyed. Five years later, in 1831, they are more than 1051. But in 1836, the level reached a decade earlier is almost solved: 1829 inhabitants.
In 1846, depopulation began. A shelter, are recorded 1726 inhabitants. Five years later, they are more than 938 and in 1856 their number increased by almost 60% to 1528 people. These variations are apparent to the following censuses: in 1861, 856 inhabitants in 1866, 1202 inhabitants in 1871, 1204 inhabitants in 1876, 782 inhabitants. Then, the population decline is steady, smoothly, until the population fall in 1968 below 200.
Can we explain these erratic counts, and if so, how? Note that these abrupt changes do not find needles, except between 1886 and 1891, where the population rose from 558 to 407 inhabitants in 1896 to regain the level of 515 inhabitants, but this variation is explained by the fires that destroyed the village in 1889 and 1891. Counts of the population in other municipalities Queyras do not like variations, except Castle Old Town, whose population rose from 1128 to 991 inhabitants between 1796 and 1801, then from 991 to 1248 inhabitants between 1801 and 1806; and then from 1264 to 1876 to 1337 inhabitants between 1817 and 1826. Molines, Ristolas, Saint-Veran are down almost as regularly population, with occasional sudden variations, as in Saint-Veran, with a population estimated at 669 inhabitants in 1826 grew to 800 inhabitants in 1831 and 1836 , to 831 inhabitants.
Several hypotheses can be advanced to account for these variations. It is possible that surveys were not conducted in the same season. In this case, the sharp declines are due to the absence in the villages of seasonal migrants are brutal and ski straight to the date the census was conducted. These errors of enumeration, are always possible, are not the determining factor, since sudden changes mainly affect Abriès. We know that this county has suffered the highest rate of population decline between 1831 and 1960 and in 1968 she had lost 90% of its population of 1836. The extent of depopulation can be explained by overcrowding of the county, which was the seventeenth and eighteenth century most prosperous Queyras (see Harriet Rosenberg). Rather than seeking the causes of this phenomenon, it is better to accept it as it is and conclude at the very high population mobility shelter, which its farmers have long practiced transhumance reverse and maintained for centuries of relations with the inhabitants of the Piedmont valleys and were versed in subtleties of trading. It was enough of a bad harvest and a brutal evolution of markets for a portion of the population moves away from the village for some time and look elsewhere for revenue honorable.
