According to the 1797 Census only 37% of Courland's Jewish population lived in towns. The Jews were mostly concentrated in Mitau, the capital of Kurland, and Hasenpoth, the administrative centre of Pilten. Gradually, the Jews moved to the cities. The principal places of Jewish habitation were Bausk, Friedrichstadt, Goldingen, Grobin, Hasenpoth, Jacobstadt, Libau, Mitau, Pilten, Talsen, Tuckum, Windau, Griva Semgallen, Illuxt, Polangen (now in Lithuania), Sasmacken, Frauenburg, Tsabeln, and in the villages of Kandau, Neu-Subbat, Schoenburg, etc.

In the early 1840's there was a move to re-locate Jewish families to the Ukraine and to Jewish agricultural communities in the south-east of Russia. These large-scale migrations raised significant numbers of participants. For example, Bausk alone sent 82 families (692 individuals) to the agricultural communities in the province of Kherson in 1840.

There was a cholera epidemic in 1848 that claimed many lives. During World War I all Jews were expelled from Courland at very short notice (see personal memoir of this eviction).

It is said that over half of Riga's Jews originated from Courland as the 19th century progressed.