How Large Was Gondor, and How Many People Lived There?

Tolkien
Gondor
Geography
Data visualization
A data-based reconstruction of Gondor’s area and population at the time of the War of the Ring.
Author

Andrii Holovchenko

Published

August 30, 2026

J.R.R. Tolkien never gave us a direct answer. He described Gondor’s cities, regions, landscapes and armies, but he never provided its total area or population.

Still, we can make an estimate using the information found in his writings and comparing Gondor with real premodern societies.

There are three main approaches we could use:

Why use the area-based approach?

The army approach runs into an immediate problem: Tolkien gives us only partial information about Gondor’s military strength. The contingents sent to Minas Tirith were not its entire army. Many men remained behind to defend their own lands, while other forces were already stationed in Ithilien, Osgiliath and along the Anduin. Some of the reinforcements also appear to have been regional levies rather than professional soldiers.

The city approach is even harder to use. Tolkien describes the physical form of Minas Tirith, but provides no reliable population figures for Minas Tirith, Dol Amroth, Pelargir or Gondor’s other settlements. Osgiliath, once the capital and largest city, was largely ruined and abandoned by the time of the War of the Ring.

Army and city evidence can therefore help us judge whether an estimate is plausible, but neither provides a strong enough foundation for calculating Gondor’s total population. That leaves the area-based approach.

Calculating Gondor’s area

First, I needed to calculate the approximate area of Gondor. For this, I used Karen Wynn Fonstad’s The Atlas of Middle-earth as the main cartographic reference.

I calibrated the map using its scale, digitised Gondor’s outer boundary and divided the territory into its main regions. Smaller fiefs were grouped with neighbouring regions to keep the reconstruction readable.

Tolkien never provided precise administrative borders, so these boundaries are necessarily interpretive. Wherever possible, I followed rivers, mountain ranges and other natural features that could reasonably have served as boundaries.

For the northern and eastern edges, I followed the Anduin from the area around the Argonath and included Ithilien. Ithilien still formally belonged to Gondor, but by T.A. 3019 it was largely abandoned and had become a military frontier between Gondor and Mordor.

According to this reconstruction:

  • Anfalas was the largest region, covering approximately 110.4k km².
  • Gondor’s main territory, excluding Ithilien and Tolfalas, covered approximately 300.9k km².
  • Including North and South Ithilien and the island of Tolfalas, the total mapped area reached approximately 352.3k km².

At approximately 352k km², the Gondor shown in this reconstruction was roughly comparable in size to modern Germany.

Choosing a historical baseline

To estimate Gondor’s population, I needed a historical society that could provide a reasonable starting point.

I chose the Byzantine Empire around A.D. 1025, near the end of the reign of Basil II.

In A Concise History of Byzantium, historian Warren Treadgold estimates that the Byzantine Empire around 1025 covered approximately 1.20 million km² and had a population of about 12 million people.

This produces an average population density of approximately:

12 million ÷ 1.20 million km² = 10 people per km²

Treadgold warns that rounded population estimates may have a margin of error as high as 25%. His figures are therefore more useful as a basis for comparison than as exact measurements.

The Byzantine Empire is not a direct equivalent of Gondor. No historical country could be. But it offers a useful baseline: both were predominantly agrarian societies with fortified cities, roads, regional military forces and maritime trade. Gondor inherited exceptional engineering knowledge from Númenor, yet most of its people still appear to have depended on agriculture, herding and other rural production.

There is also a rough geographical comparison.

In Letter 294, Tolkien placed Minas Tirith at roughly the latitude of Florence. He placed Pelargir and the Mouths of Anduin at approximately the latitude of ancient Troy.

This suggests that southern Gondor occupied a broadly Mediterranean latitude, comparable - very approximately - with parts of Italy, Greece, the Balkans and western Anatolia. Latitude alone does not prove that the climates were identical, but it makes the comparison more reasonable.

Tolkien also wrote that none of the regions of Gondor and Arnor were:

“densely populated as we should reckon it”

This statement appears in The Rivers and Beacon-hills of Gondor, a late geographical essay published in Vinyar Tengwar 42 and later in The Nature of Middle-earth.

A low premodern population density therefore fits both the historical baseline and Tolkien’s own description.

Why I reduced the Byzantine density

Even with these similarities, I do not think Gondor should receive the full Byzantine average of 10 people per km².

The Byzantine Empire also contained exposed frontiers, mountains and districts damaged by war. It was never populated evenly. But a particularly large share of Gondor’s mapped territory was mountainous, rural, exposed to raids or almost completely depopulated.

Ithilien is the clearest example. After centuries of warfare with Mordor, most of its inhabitants had already fled. Tolkien’s chronology records that the last inhabitants of Ithilien fled across the Anduin after Mount Doom became active again in T.A. 2954.

By the War of the Ring, Ithilien contained Rangers, scouts, hidden refuges and military positions, but almost no normal civilian population. Tolfalas was another exceptional territory: an isolated island with no known towns and little evidence of permanent settlement.

For these reasons, I reduced Gondor’s estimated average density to approximately 7.2 people per km² across the entire mapped territory.

If Ithilien and Tolfalas are excluded, the density of Gondor’s more securely controlled core rises to approximately 8.4 people per km² - much closer to the Byzantine baseline.

Estimating the population of each region

A single national density would still be too simple. Gondor’s regions were very different from one another, so I assigned each one a separate density based on its geography and Tolkien’s descriptions.

Lebennin

Lebennin was probably the demographic and economic heart of southern Gondor. It was protected from Mordor by the Anduin and the regions farther east, and it had five rivers, access to the sea and extensive green lowlands. Tolkien describes it as a fair, populous land of green fields and swift streams.

I therefore gave Lebennin the highest density in the reconstruction: 15 people per km². Across approximately 66.0k km², this produces an estimated population of about 989k people, making it Gondor’s most populous region.

Anfalas

Anfalas was Gondor’s largest region, but it appears to have been overwhelmingly rural. Tolkien describes its people as:

“hunters and herdsmen and men of little villages”

This suggests a dispersed population and limited urbanisation. I assigned Anfalas a density of 3 people per km². Despite this low density, its enormous area of 110.4k km² produces an estimated population of approximately 331k people.

Belfalas

Belfalas appears to have been one of Gondor’s richest and best-organised regions. It contained Dol Amroth, had access to maritime trade, and sent the largest clearly numbered contingent from the southern fiefs to Minas Tirith: a company of armoured knights and 700 men-at-arms.

This suggests considerable wealth and military capacity, although it cannot provide a population figure by itself. I assigned Belfalas a density of 13 people per km², producing an estimated 622k people across 47.8k km².

Anórien

Anórien included Minas Tirith, the Pelennor Fields and the northern territory between the White Mountains and the Anduin. Around Minas Tirith, Tolkien describes townlands with:

“wide tilth and many orchards”

But Anórien also included forests, hills and exposed northern territory, so its population was probably concentrated around Minas Tirith, the Pelennor and the mountain valleys. A density of 10 people per km² gives an estimated population of about 349k people across 34.9k km², including Minas Tirith.

Lamedon

Lamedon was a mountainous region centred on the uplands and the town of Calembel. Its small contingent at Minas Tirith cannot be treated as a population count because many of its fighting men remained closer to home, but its geography still suggests a lower density than Lebennin or Belfalas.

I assigned Lamedon a density of 6 people per km², giving an estimated population of about 250k people across 41.7k km².

Tolfalas

We know very little about the inhabitants of Tolfalas. Tolkien describes the island after the Downfall of Númenor as a:

“barren and lonely mountain in the water”

There are no named towns, rulers or military contingents associated with it. I therefore treated Tolfalas as almost uninhabited, perhaps supporting a small number of fishermen, sailors, watchmen or seasonal residents. Its total population was probably fewer than 2k people.

North and South Ithilien

Ithilien had once been one of Gondor’s fairest regions, but by the end of the Third Age it had become a devastated military frontier. Minas Ithil had fallen, Osgiliath had been ruined, and repeated invasions had driven the civilian population west across the Anduin. Gondor still maintained Rangers and secret refuges such as Henneth Annûn, but this was a military presence rather than a normally settled province.

I therefore treated both parts of Ithilien as having almost no permanent civilian population.

The final estimate

Using these regional densities and the areas calculated earlier, I arrived at the following estimate:

Region Area Est. Density per km² Est. population
Lebennin 66.0k km² 15 989k
Tolfalas 6.3k km² <0.1 <2k
Anfalas 110.4k km² 3 331k
Lamedon 41.7k km² 6 250k
Belfalas 47.8k km² 13 622k
Anórien 34.9k km² 10 349k
South Ithilien 25.6k km² <0.1 <2k
North Ithilien 19.5k km² <0.1 <1k
Total 352.3k km² 7.2 c. 2.55 million

My final estimate is therefore approximately 2.55 million people across 352k km². That would make Gondor roughly the size of modern Germany, but with only about one quarter of modern Sweden’s population.

None of these figures are canonical. They are estimates, but they give us a more concrete sense of how large Gondor might have been, how many people may have lived there, and how it compares with modern countries.

I hope you found this reconstruction interesting. If you would like to use the map data, feel free to contact me at the email address in the footer. I would be happy to share the TopoJSON files and other materials I created while working on this article.

Sources and further reading