SOURCE: "The Elizabethan World," in Daily Life: Elizabethan England, Greenwood Press, 1995, pp. 9-36.

In the excerpt below, Singman examines the roles of class, politics, and religion in shaping daily life in Elizabethan society.

Society

The population of England was probably over 3 million when Elizabeth came to the throne in 1558, and it grew to over 4 million by the time of her death in 1603. These figures represent roughly a tenth of the population of England today. This rapid growth meant that a large part of the population at any time were young people: it has been estimated that roughly a third were under the age of 15, a half under age 25. Population density was highest in the south and east, with the mountainous areas of the north and west more sparsely settled. The overwhelming majority lived in rural areas, although London was growing rapidly.

Not all of this population were ethnically...