Вильнюс аймағының тарихы мен этникалық құрамы

The city of Vilnius, now the capital of Lithuania, and its surrounding region has been under various states. The Vilnius Region has been part of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania from the Lithuanian state's founding in the late Middle Ages to its destruction in 1795, i. e. five centuries. From then, the region was occupied by the Russian Empire until 1915, when the German Empire invaded it. After 1918 and throughout the Lithuanian Wars of Independence, Vilnius was disputed between the Republic of Lithuania and the Second Polish Republic. After the city was seized by the Republic of Central Lithuania with Żeligowski's Mutiny, the city was part of Poland throughout the Interwar period. Regardless, Lithuania claimed Vilnius as its capital. During World War II, the city changed hands many times, and the German occupation resulting in the destruction of Jews in Lithuania. From 1945 to 1990, Vilnius was the Lithuanian Soviet Socialist Republic's capital. From the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Vilnius has been part of Lithuania. The population has been categorised by linguistic and sometimes also religious indicators. At the end of the 19th century the main languages spoken were Polish, Lithuanian, Belarusian, Yiddish and Russian. Both Catholic and Orthodox Christianity were represented, while a large proportion of the city's inhabitants were Jews. The "Lithuanian" element was seen as declining, while the "Slavic" element was increasing. Census data are available from 1897 onward, although the territorial boundaries and ethnic categorisation have been inconsistent. The Jewish population decreased greatly because of the Holocaust of 1941–44, and subsequently, many Poles were removed from the city, but less so from the surrounding countryside. Consequently, recent Census figures show a predominance of Lithuanians in the city of Vilnius, but of Poles in the Vilnius district outside the city.

Already in the 1st century, Lithuanian tribes inhabited Lithuania proper. Slavicisation of Lithuanians in eastern and southeastern Lithuania began in the 16th century. It is recorded that in 1554, Lithuanian, Polish and Church Slavonic were spoken in Vilnius. The Statutes of Lithuania, officially enforced from 1588 until 1840, forbid Polish nobility to buy estates in Lithuania, hence a mass migration of Poles into the Vilnius region was impossible. The Lithuanian nobility and Bourgeoisie was gradually Polonized over the 17th and 18th centuries. Until the end of the 19th century, Peasants in eastern Lithuania proper were Lithuanians. This is attested by their un Polonized surnames, and most Lithuanians in eastern Lithuania proper were Slavicized by schools and churches in the last quarter of the 19th century. Polonization resulted in the mixed language spoken in the Vilnius region by Tutejszy, where it was known as "mowa prosta". It is not recognized as a dialect of Polish and borrows heavily from the Polish, Lithuanian and Belarusian languages. According to Polish professor Jan Otrębski's article published in 1931, the Polish dialect in the Vilnius Region and in the northeastern areas in general are very interesting variant of Polishness as this dialect developed in a foreign territory which was mostly inhabited by the Lithuanians who were Belarusized (mostly) or Polonized, and to prove this Otrębski provided examples of Lithuanianisms in the Tutejszy language. In 2015, Polish linguist pl attested that many of the region's inhabitants who declare Polish nationality speak a Belarusian dialect which they call mowa prosta ('simple speech').

Most of the former lands of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania were annexed by the Russian Empire during the Partitions in the late 18th century. While initially, these former lands had certain local autonomy, with local nobility holding the same offices as before the Partitions, after several unsuccessful rebellions in 1830–31 and 1863–64 against the Russian Empire, the Russian authorities engaged in intense Russification of the regions' inhabitants. Following the failed November uprising all traces of former Polish–Lithuanian statehood (like the Third Statute of Lithuania and Congress Poland) were replaced with Russian counterparts, ranging from the currency and units of measurement to offices of local administration. The failed January Uprising of 1863–64 further aggravated the situation, as the Russian authorities decided to pursue the policies of forcibly imposed Russification. The discrimination of local inhabitants included restrictions and bans on usage of Lithuanian (see Lithuanian press ban), Polish, Belarusian and Ukrainian (see Valuyev circular) languages. This however did not stop the Polonization effort undertaken by the Polish patriotic leadership of the Vilna educational district even within the Russian Empire. Despite that, the pre 19th century cultural and ethnic pattern of the area was largely preserved. In the process of the pre 19th century voluntary Polonization, much of the Lithuanian nobility adopted Polish language and culture. This was also true to the representatives of the then nascent bourgeoisie class and the Catholic and Uniate clergy. At the same time, the lower strata of the society (notably the peasants) formed a multi ethnic and multi cultural mixture of Lithuanians, Poles, Jews, Tatars and Ruthenians, as well as a small yet notable population of immigrants from all parts of Europe, from Italy to Scotland and from the Low Countries to Germany. During the rule of the Russian tsars, Polish remained the Lingua franca as it had been in Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. By the middle of the 17th century, most Lithuanian upper nobility was Polonized. Over time, the nobility of the former Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth unified politically and started to consider themselves to be citizens of one common state. The leader of interwar Poland, the Lithuanian born Józef Piłsudski, was an example of this phenomenon.

Following is a list of censuses that have been taken in the city of Vilnius and its region since 1897. The list is incomplete. Data are at times fragmentary.

Michail Lebedkin used lists of the parish's inhabitants and judged their ethnicity based on their mother tongue. Lebedkin considered Polish speaking Catholics as Poles, yet the largest percentages of them were in districts of Dysna (43.4%), Vilnius (34.5%) and Vileyka (22.1%). However, these districts were disconnected from ethnographic Poland and because there was no Polish colonisation, the sole conclusion is that the Polish speaking Catholics were Polonized Lithuanians.

The Vilnius urban region is the only area in East Lithuania that doesn't face a decrease in population density. Polish people constitute the majority of native rural inhabitants in the Vilnius region. However, the share of Poles across the region is dwindling mainly due to the natural decline of rural population and process of suburbanization – most of new residents in the outskirts of Vilnius are Lithuanians. Colloquial Polish in Lithuania includes dialectic qualities and is influenced by other languages. Educated Poles speak a language close to standard Polish.