section_path: Society/Demography
section_name: Demography
paragraph_text: Demography
  
  From the rule of Diocletian (r. 284–305) until the East's peak following Justinian's recovery of western territories in 540, the population could have been as high as 27 million, but would fall to as low as 12 million in 800. Plague and loss of territories to the Arab Muslim invaders significantly impacted the Empire, but it recovered, and by the near end of the Macedonian dynasty in 1025, the population is estimated to have been as high as 18 million. A few decades after the recapture of Constantinople in 1282, the Empire's population was in the range of 3 - 5 million; by 1312, the number had dropped to 2 million. By the time the Ottoman Turks captured Constantinople, there were only 50,000 people in the city, which was one-tenth of its population in its prime.