This volume brings together ten original papers on the population dynamics and development of Western European port cities. In a substantial overview chapter Lawton and Lee examine ‘Port Development and the Demographic Dynamics of European Urbanisation’, setting in context the individual case studies that follow. These studies – of Bremen, Cork, Genoa, Glasgow, Hamburg, Liverpool, Malmö, Nantes, Portsmouth and Trieste – provide an important enhancement of our understanding of the particular socio-economic and demographic characteristics of port cities, and point to the existence of a particular port demographic regime. They emphasise the central importance of the high proportion of unskilled and casual labour, the susceptibility of cyclical employment, the inflated risk of epidemic infection, and other demographic and economic factors specific to port cities.