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Regional disparity is one of the greatest challenges in Tunisia since the Jasmine Revolution. Inequalities between the privileged coastal area and the marginalized interior area are aggravated by the unbalanced regional development policy adopted after Independence from the French Protectorate (1881–1956). However, interregional inequalities were already identified during the French Protectorate era. Thus, this paper discusses the demographic changes in Tunisia in the early twentieth century using population censuses and statistics published in the colonial period to understand the origin of regional inequalities in contemporary Tunisia. The censuses show that population distribution was relatively balanced in the early Protectorate era, but this changed swiftly from the 1930s because of local people's internal migration to the capital, Tunis. It is assumed that the migration resulted from modernization and the rural exodus. Further study using the censuses of the French Protectorate era and observation of the regional population patterns of that era serves as a key material for understanding the origin of regional inequalities in Tunisia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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