I did some quick googling and found this interesting research from Oberlin, with a history of meteorite injuries and deaths:
1420 BC Israel - Fatal meteorite impact.
588 AD China - 10 deaths; siege towers destroyed.
1321-68 China - People & animals killed; homes ruined.
1369 Ho-t'ao China - Soldier injured; fire.
02/03/1490 Shansi, China - 10,000 deaths.
09/14/1511 Cremona, Italy - Monk, birds, & sheep killed.
1633-64 Milono, Italy - Monk killed.
1639 China - Tens of deaths; 10 homes destroyed.
1647-54 Indian Ocean - 2 sailors killed aboard a ship.
07/24/1790 France - Farmer killed; home destroyed; cattle killed.
01/16/1825 Oriang, India - Man killed; woman injured.
02/27/1827 Mhow, India - Man injured.
12/11/1836 Macao, Brazil - Oxen killed; homes damaged.
07/14/1847 Braunau, Bohemia - Home struck by 371 lb meteorite.
01/23/1870 Nedagolla, India - Man stunned by meteorite.
06/30/1874 Ming Tung li, China - Cottage crushed, child killed.
01/14/1879 Newtown, Indiana, USA - Man killed in bed.
01/31/1879 Dun-Lepoelier, France - Farmer killed by meteorite.
11/19/1881 Grossliebenthal, Russia - Man injured.
03/11/1897 West Virginia, USA - Walls pierced, horse killed, man injured.
09/05/1907 Weng-li, China - Whole family crushed to death.
06/30/1908 Tunguska, Siberia - Fire, 2 people killed. (referenced throughout paper)
04/28/1927 Aba, Japan - Girl injured by meteorite.
12/08/1929 Zvezvan, Yugoslavia - Meteorite hit bridal party, 1 killed.
05/16/1946 Santa Ana, Mexico - Houses destroyed, 28 injured.
11/30/1946 Colford, UK - Telephones knocked out, boy injured.
11/28/1954 Sylacauga, Alabama, USA - 4 kg meteorite struck home, lady injured.
08/14/1992 Mbole, Uganda - 48 stones fell, roofs damaged, boy injured.
The data are interesting on their own if you start with the idea that meteor strikes are random across centuries, but the information collection and preservation isn't. For instance, with two data points you might claim there were more monks than princes in Renaissance Italy, but they were both surrounded by literate people who kept records compared to the even more numerous peasants. However, I suppose interpreting small datasets so that they fit preconceived notions isn't very productive.
It does seem strange that there are ten 19th century events and eight in the 20th century. Not so much because the numbers are different, but because there was twice the population, and literacy and communication were so vastly improved.
More people are working indoors in tall buildings and traveling in cars. So they are more concentrated where they live and travel. And each sighting is counted only once, regardless of how many people saw it.
Relative to the entire population, humanity is more urbanized, but that seems irrelevant to me compared to how many single square miles on the earth's surface contain a human who is connected to the global community.
While the decreasing number of people needed to farm a square mile seems like it would matter enough to decrease the newsworthiness of meteor strikes in some agricultural regions, it still seems likely that there has been a net increase in total area that includes the lower bound of population density where a meteor strike would be sufficiently newsworthy to make this list.
Take Las Vegas over the past 50 years as an example. It's a prime example of people being increasingly insulated from the outdoors, yet the footprint and total area of settled land has grown dramatically. It hardly matters whether you're inside or not, if a meteor strikes your block.
Edit: I was curious about the data and found this Google Earth file[1]. It looks like there definitely are many more recorded events, and it's just that the bar for being newsworthy has risen. However, what's strange is the preponderance of events in NW Texas and north of there. If records were population-based, then it should look like population density maps. I can't figure out off hand what causes the density of events, other than flat land and maybe tornado observation equipment, but that would seem to apply to other areas as well.
I've seen the Sylacauga meteorite (2nd from the last) in person. It currently resides in Smith Hall, the museum of natural history, at The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa.
