Ah yes here is also a post I ended Vol III with, for those who havn't seen it
Britannic Empire: England and Wales
Formally united in government since the mid 16th century, Wales still remains very much the junior partner. Generally across the two countries literacy is much higher than OTL with around 65% of men able to read and write to some extent, although fluent literacy is only around 45%. This is however regional with London having a fluent male literacy rate close to 60% compared to , for example, Gwynedd where it is under 20%. Much of this is down to trade and education, with all towns over 5,000 people having a grammar school by 1581, although the size and quality, like literacy in general, improves the further south and east that you go.
Population-wise this is also bigger than OTL with Wales around 300,000 people (c50% higher than OTL) and England 6.5 million (compared to 4.1 OTL). Remember this is after emigration to the Empire has been taken into account. Despite the losses in wars, the prosperity and growth of the 16th century saw a huge population boom across the Empire but especially in England. This was largely encouraged by social mobility with larger families being able to be supported by trade and the Empire. Of course this means that wealth and standard of living is generally higher than OTL, though there are exceptions.
Rural areas, especially in the north, mid-Wales and Cornwall experienced slower population and standard of living growth as enclosures curtailed agricultural expansion and led to migration either to urban areas or overseas. This migration has led to some ‘slum’ areas in these urban areas, London, York and Bristol being the main cities. London in particular has a population of 350,000 (compared to 200,000 OTL) largely thanks to its place as the centre of the Empire, trade and the entry point for immigrants/refugees from Europe. Areas such as Cheapside and Battersea are particularly poor.
Religion-wise England and Wales are largely Protestant - around 75% with around a third of these being Puritanical in nature. Given the strength of the reformation in England ITTL (Luther himself visited numerous times) the country is around 50 years ahead of OTL religiously by 1581 with the south and east being very Puritan, London is almost 50% Puritan, 45% Protestant and 5% other. Like OTL the north is less Protestant in general with Catholics especially entrenched. Until the late 1560s ITTL there was little overt persecution of Catholics and even then it was more restrained than OTL. The unfortunate side-effect of this is that England of the Sons in Splendour is far more religiously divided by 1581 than OTL: the remaining Catholics are concealed, deep-rooted, and many of them are radical, whilst Protestantism is swinging more quickly and strongly towards Puritanism than OTL.
Wales is a similar pattern: Catholics are isolated and rural, but are much weaker than in England, with around 75% of the population being Protestants of some form. Puritans tend to be more prevalent in the south and east of Wales but generally lower education, prosperity and literacy means a higher prevalence of regular Protestants.
Wales is ethnically unchanged from OTL - it is not a major point of immigration. England is largely unchanged also, although urban areas are more cosmopolitan than OTL 1581. The major ports of London, Plymouth, Portsmouth and Bristol have more Scots, Irish and Welsh living in them as sailors whilst French is the second most spoken language in London thanks to Huguenot immigration, though less than 10,000 of them came to England, most settled in the capital.
London is the centre of the Empire and as such it has a large number of ethnic minorities. Around 90% are English with the other ‘British’ races accounting for another 5%. However this 5% is largely Anglicised Gentry and traders - Irish and Welsh - are barely spoken outside of their homelands. The remaining 5% is made up of 2% Huguenot French 1% Jewish (mostly from eastern and central Europe, but some from the new world) and then the remaining 2% is a mix of Protestant Dutch, German and Scandinavian with less than 100 Colombian, Norland and Japanese natives thrown in.
Scotland (not officially in the Empire politically or dynastically, but for all intents and purposes they are a vassal in all but name).
The benefits south of the border have been slow to trickle north. Scotland ITTL is around 10% more populated and 15% more literate than OTL, though again they have some some minor emigration to the New World. Ethnically still homogenous and religiously similar to England: a Protestant elite tending to Puritanism with a rural Catholicism entrenched especially in the most remote areas.
Ireland
The Emerald Isle took a beating in the 16th century, especially the 1570s. Numerous Irish-Catholic rebellions did not cause de-population as such but had a huge demographic impact. Ireland of the Sons in Splendour is more English, educated and Protestant than OTL 1581.
Many plantations into Leinster and eastern Ulster removed the Irish landowners, and even around 80% of the peasantry in some areas. From 1530-1575 the response of the government in Dublin to any dissent was to evict troublemakers and send them to Connacht or the New World, replacing them with English settlers and gentry. These new settlers wanted the same education as their peers back in England and so Irish towns had grammar schools too. They were also Protestants. In particular some settlers from East Anglia who settled around Kildare, Meath and Wicklow were rather Puritan. By 1581 Ireland was around 40% Protestant and 10% Puritan, the rest being Catholic.
The Catholic Irish bore the cost for this greater education, Anglicisation, and Protestantism without really gaining from any of it. The Catholic Irish population of Ireland by 1581 was half that of OTL (around 600,000 not 1.2 million) with the remainder being scattered across the island with no particular concentration. Much of this lost population came from Connacht and the Black Summer of 1580 but also western Munster and then to a lesser extent east Munster, west Leinster and western Ulster most of it carted off to the New World plantations as slaves, thoguh before 1579 they were sent to the Irish exile colony . The remaining Irish were entirely from the lower orders, largely uneducated and Protestant. King Michael began a slow process of assimilation - through education and the Church - in the 1580s to change this, but he was being incredibly cautious
Europe
Brittany
The Duchy had maintained its de facto independence under the umbrella of the Britannic Empire. Led by a cadet branch of the House of York (King Richard IV’s younger brother Edward) Brittany had been able to secure its own culture whilst benefiting from the Empire.
Brittany was 35% more populous than OTL and 45% more literate. Again this was an imbalance towards more urban areas. The rural hinterland was unchanged in some areas whilst ports of St Malo, Nantes, St Nazaire, Lorient and Brest were on average 20% larger than OTL. The Breton particularly benefited from Imperial trade as the Norland Trading Company in particular favoured their sailors but also their ships in general as more impartial and less likely to be accosted in Catholic ports across Europe. By 1581 it was increasingly common for young Breton men to seek work on the coast or at sea.
Brittany was the one exception in the Britannic Empire in being largely Catholic. Around 75% of Brittany was Catholic by 1581 although the remainder were French Huguenots who had been able to settle with breton borders. By 1581 these borders included Brittany, Nantes and the Vendee. The trend was slowly moving towards the Protestants, but at a rate of around 2-4% a year. Very little effort was made, as it was elsewhere, to convert Catholics to Protestantism. The Duke made constant use of his Breton veto on all but military matters to keep Brittany as independent and Catholic as possible as Breton society was especially sensitive to any external cultural pressure on them.
Normandy
1581 marked the 50th anniversary of ITTL Normandy’s return to the Plantagenet fold. Demographically it was around 50% Protestant with any Catholic dissenters being sent over the border (or even to Brittany) and being replaced by Huguenot, and small number of English settlers. Other than this Normandy was largely unchanged from OTL, population and literacy were both similar; Britannic advantages being cancelled out by a very long and exposed border with France.
Picardy
By 1581 this term denoted all of Picardy, the Pas de Calais, Artois and Bruges and Ghent. Picardy was the most Anglicised of Britannia’s European possessions; Calais was fast becoming the second city of the Empire and was the seat of the Imperial Constable, responsible for all foreign diplomacy and war if it came to that.
Calais, and its surrounding area (La Poche) extended as far as Ostend, the Somme and Arras had been controlled by the English for almost a century by 1581 (Calais of course since the 14th century). Owing to generations of war the Catholic French population had all but gone, with around 10% clinging on by 1581. 90% of this area was therefore Protestant and English-speaking by 1581 as settlers moved in. Literacy areas in the former Poche were around 50% with Calais similar to London with 60% of the population fluently literate. Calais was a trade and military hub.
Beyond the Poche was the fringe of Picardy added since 1531: Amiens, Ghent and Bruges. Amiens was around 70% English Protestant with the region following the same trend as La Poche just 30 years or so behind. Bruges and Ghent were only acquired in 1580 and so are largely Catholic though Bruges is ever so slightly more Protestant (20%) than OTL given its proximity to English Ostend. Population in these areas was similar to OTL though in La Poche it was 20% higher.
Netherlands and ‘Germany’
Largely Protestant save for the newly acquired Brussels, Liege and Antwerp giving the Netherlands around 60% Protestants. Without the Spanish rampaging across it as OTL the population is 40% higher, as it also benefits from trade with the Britannic Empire. Protestantism controls much of OTL 21st century Germany save Bavaria which is staunchly Catholic. In the rest of Protestant Germany pogroms mean that around 25% of the population is still Catholic but this is shrinking fast. Germany’s population is on average 10% higher than OTL but areas such as Hesse and Hamburg are even higher.
The Hansa are effectively dead (100 years ahead of OTL). Their OTL setbacks in the Baltic still happen but the north sea and beyond is completely closed off by the Britannic Empire. By relying on their Protestantism and their ties to the League of Copenhagen cities like Hamburg and Lubeck have survived though having divested themselves of the Hansa. Rostock is the largest Hanseatic city still going.
Catholic Europe
Portugal is unchanged from OTl on all counts, still has its Empire whilst Spain and France are 30% less populous than OTL thanks to their Empire and northern territory respectively being taken from them. Catholicism is as strong as OTL and education is a little behind OTL. Italy is largely unchanged.
Austria and Bavaria are more or less united as the HRE fell. Though they remain as Catholic as OTL the fall of the Empire means they are around 30% behind OTL in terms of population and prosperity. Eastern Europe largely unchanged, though Hungary is stronger as the Ottomans were less bellicose following decades of succession squabbles.
New World
Avon-Lothian (OTL Massachusetts north to Nova Scotia and Newfoundland)
Population: 100,000. 80% English (especially West-Country), 15% Scottish, 5% friendly Native (mostly Inuit)
Religion: 90% Protestant, 5% Catholic, 5% native beliefs
Literacy: c45%
Trade: Timber, Shipbuilding, Furs, Fish, some minor Agriculture
Goughton (OTL Virginia and some of North Carolina)
Population: 250,000: 45% English (West Country and North), 15% French Huguenot, 5% Friendly Natives (including c2,000 Aztec exiles), 35% African Slaves
Religion:65% Protestant, 35% Native/African beliefs
Literacy 40% (largely Europeans)
Trade: Tobacco, Sugar
Bradbury (OTL Carolinas and eastern Georgia)
Population 450,000: 30% Huguenot, 25% African Slaves, 40% Irish Slaves 5% English
Religion: 35% Protestant, 25% African beliefs, 40% Catholic
Literacy: 25% (Again, EUropeans only)
Trade: Cotton, Sugar
Hampton (OTL Florida)
Population: 320,000: 80% English, 15% Huguenot, 5% Native
Religion: 95% Protestant, 5% Native Beliefs
Literacy: 50%
Trade: Sugar, Tobacco, other cash crops (eg Citrus), light industry e.g. weapons
Tir na Gaeliege (OTL Florida Panhandle and Alabama)
Population: 100,000: 60% Irish, 5% Scot, 34% Native (Creek mostly), 1% English (garrison)
Religion: 65% Catholic, 34% Native religions (increasing overlap between these 2), 1% Protestant
Literacy: 10%
Trade: a little subsistence crops, Sugar, seafood
Colombian islands (Mostly OTL Cuba, Hispaniola, Puerto Rico, Aruba, T&T, Bahamas, Barbados)
Population 200,000: 45% English, 10% Welsh, 5% Natives, 5% Spanish, 5% Free black, 30% African Slaves
Religion: 60% Protestant, 5% Catholic, 35% Native/African religions
Trade: Tobacco, Sugar, Cotton, Cacao
Gran Colombia (OTL Mexico)
Population 400,000: 25% English, 5% Welsh/Breton, 5% Huguenot, 15% African Slaves, 40% Natives (Aztecs etc), 10% Creole/Pigden
Religion: 38% Protestant, 3% Catholic, 59% African/native/syncretic beliefs
Trade: Tobacco, Cotton, Sugar, Cacao, Precious metals
Barrow (OTL Ecuador, Peru, northern Chile and western Bolivia)
Population: 350,000: 15% English, 35% Native, 50% African Slave
Religion: Protestant 15%, 85% Native/African beliefs
Trade: Precious metals
Venezuela (acquired by Britannia 1580)
Population 150,000: 10% Spanish, 10% English, 45% Free Black, 35% Natives
Religion 10% CAtholic, 12% Protestant, 78% African/Native Beliefs.
New Canaan Republic (OTL Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and DC)
Population 230,000: 15% English, 10% Huguenot, 35% Jewish (mostly eastern and central European, some from England and Iberia too), 25% Czech Hussite, 15% Native
Religion 50% Protestant, 35% Jewish, 15% Native Beliefs
Literacy 65% (huge history of education in English and Jewish communities which spread to the others)
Trade: Timber, Subsistence Crops, Banking, Shipping, soldiers/sailors, Furs, weapons/light industry
Let me know if you spot any Maths errors, its not my strong suit!