Demographic history of Serbia

This article presents the demographic history of Serbia through census results. See Demographics of Serbia for a more detailed overview of the current demographics from 2011 census.

Censuses
Censuses in Serbia ordinarily takes place every 10 years, organized by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The last census was in 2011. The censuses were organized in 2011, 2002, 1991, 1981, 1971, 1961, 1953 and 1948, during Yugoslavia. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, censuses were conducted in 1931 and 1921; the census in 1941 was never conducted due to the outbreak of WWII.

The independent Principality of Serbia, had conducted the first population census in 1834; the subsequent censuses were conducted in 1841, 1843, 1846, 1850, 1854, 1859, 1863 and 1866 and 1874. During the era Kingdom of Serbia, six censuses were conducted in 1884, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905 and the last one being in 1910.

19th century
The censuses of 1846, 1850 and 1854 were partially published in Glasnik DSS. The Statistical Office was established in 1862. Since 1863, the Office published Državopis Srbije in twenty volumes, until 1894. Statistical data continued to be published in the new edition of Statistika Kraljevine Srbije, published since 1892. Little is known in historiography about the censuses through 1859.

1834 census

 * TOTAL = 678,192

Serbia was divided into 15 counties with 61 districts called kapetanija ("captaincy", after 1834 called srez). Užice was not included due to unrest.

1841 census

 * TOTAL = 828,895

1843 census

 * TOTAL = 859,545

1846 census

 * TOTAL = 915,080

Extracts in Glasnik DSS.

1850 census

 * TOTAL = 956,893

Extracts in Glasnik DSS.

1854 census

 * TOTAL = 998,919

Extracts in Glasnik DSS.

1859 census

 * TOTAL = 1,078,281

Published in 1863.

1863 census

 * TOTAL = 1,108,668

1866 census

 * TOTAL = 1,216,219
 * Serbs = 1,058,189 (87.01%)
 * Romanians = 127,545 (10.49%)
 * Roma ("Gypsies") = 24,607 (2.02%)
 * Germans = 2,589 (0.21%)
 * other = 3,256 (0.27%)

This was the first census which recorded literacy, nationality (ethnicity) and citizenship.

1874 census

 * Total:

1878 census

 * TOTAL = 1,669,337

In 1879 there was a census in the four counties ceded to Serbia in 1878.

1884 census
Source:


 * Total = 1,901,336
 * Serbs = 1,693,337 (89,04 %)


 * Romanians = 149,727 (9,68 %)


 * Roma = 34,066 (1,82 %)

1890 census

 * Total = 2,161,961


 * Serbs = 1,955,944 (90,44 %)
 * Romanians = 143,684 (6,64 %)
 * Roma = 37,581 (1,74 %)

1895 census

 * TOTAL = 2,493,770
 * Serbs = over 2 million (ca. 90%)
 * Romanians = 159,000 (6.43%)
 * Roma ("Gypsies") = 46,000 (1.84%)

1905 census

 * Total:

1910 census

 * Total: 2,922,258

1921 census

 * TOTAL = 4,133,478
 * Serbs and Croats = 3,339,369 (80.87%)
 * Albanians = 420,473 (10.17%)
 * Romanians = 159,549 (3.86%)
 * Turks = 149,210 (3.61%)
 * Germans = 5,969
 * Russians = 4,176
 * Slovenes = 3,625
 * Czechs and Slovaks = 2,801
 * Hungarians = 2,532
 * French = 717
 * Italians = 503
 * Poles = 286
 * English = 231
 * Ruthenians = 35
 * other (mostly Romani) = 44,002

1948 census

 * TOTAL = 6,527,966
 * Serbs and Croats = 4,823,730 (73.89%)
 * Albanians = 532,011 (8.15%)
 * Hungarians = 433,701 (6.64%)
 * Montenegrins = 74,860 (1.15%)
 * Slovaks = 72,032 (1.1%)
 * Bulgarians = 59,395
 * Roma = 52,181
 * Slovenes = 20,998
 * Macedonians = 17,917
 * ethnic Muslims = 17,315

1953 census

 * TOTAL = 6,979,154
 * Serbs = 5,152,939 (73.83%)
 * Albanians = 565,513 (8.10%)
 * Hungarians = 441,907 (6.33%)
 * Croats = 173,246 (2.48%)
 * Montenegrins = 86,061 (1.23%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 81,081 (1.16%)
 * Slovaks = 71,153 (1%)
 * Bulgarians = 60,146
 * Roma = 58,800
 * Macedonians = 27,277
 * Slovenes = 20,717

1961 census

 * TOTAL = 7,642,227
 * Serbs = 5,704,686 (74.65%)
 * Albanians = 699,772 (9.16%)
 * Hungarians = 449,587 (5.88%)
 * Croats = 196,409 (2.57%)
 * Montenegrins = 104,753 (1.37%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 93,467 (1.22%)
 * Slovaks = 73,830
 * Bulgarians = 58,243
 * Macedonians = 36,288
 * Yugoslavs = 20,079
 * Slovenes = 19,957
 * Roma = 9,826

1971 census

 * TOTAL = 8,446,591
 * Serbs = 6,016,811 (71.23%)
 * Albanians = 984,761 (11.66%)
 * Hungarians = 430,314 (5.10%)
 * Croats = 184,913 (2.19%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 154,330 (1.83%)
 * Montenegrins = 125,260 (1.48%)
 * Yugoslavs = 123,824 (1.47%)
 * Slovaks = 76,733
 * Romanians (self-declared) = 57,419
 * Bulgarians = 53,536
 * Roma = 49,894
 * Macedonians = 42,675
 * Rusyns = 20,608
 * Turks = 18,220
 * Slovenes = 15,957
 * "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 14,724

1981 census

 * TOTAL = 9,313,677
 * Serbs = 6,182,159 (66.38%)
 * Albanians = 1,303,032 (13.99%)
 * Yugoslavs = 441,941 (4.75%)
 * Hungarians = 390,468 (4.19%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 215,166 (2.31%)
 * Croats = 149,368 (1.60%)
 * Montenegrins = 147,466 (1.58%)
 * Roma = 110,956 (1.19%)
 * Slovaks = 69,549
 * Macedonians = 48,986
 * Bulgarians = 33,294
 * Slovenes = 12,006

1991 census

 * TOTAL (official estimation) = 9,778,991 (registered 8,182,141)
 * Serbs = 6,446,595 (65.92%)
 * Albanians (official estimation) = 1,674,353 (17.12%), registered 87,372
 * Hungarians = 343,800 (3.52%)
 * Yugoslavs = 323,643 (3.31%)
 * ethnic Muslims (official estimation) = 246,411 (2.52%), registered 237,980
 * Roma (official estimation) = 140,237 (1.43%), registered 138,799
 * Montenegrins = 139,299 (1.42%)
 * Croats = 105,406 (1.08%)

Estimated population:

1991 census

 * TOTAL = 7,822,795
 * Serbs = 6,252,405 (79.93%)
 * Hungarians = 343,800 (4.39%)
 * Yugoslavs = 320,186 (4.09%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 180,222 (2.3%)
 * Montenegrins = 118,934 (1.52%)
 * Croats = 97,344 (1.24%)
 * Roma = 94,491 (1.21%)
 * Albanians = 78,281 (1%)
 * Slovaks = 66,772 (0.85%)
 * Macedonians = 45,068 (0.58%)
 * Romanians (self-declared) = 42,316 (0.54%)
 * Bulgarians = 26,698 (0.34%)
 * Bunjevci = 21,434 (0.34%)
 * Ukrainians = 5,042 (0.23%)
 * "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 17,804 (0.23%)
 * others = 34,698 (0.44%)
 * regional affiliation = 4,841 (0.06%)
 * unknown = 47,949 (0.61%)
 * unspecified = 10,538 (0.13%)

2002 census

 * TOTAL = 7,498,001
 * Serbs = 6,212,838 (82.86%)
 * Hungarians = 293,299 (3.91%)
 * Bosniaks = 136,087 (1.82%)
 * Roma = 108,193 (1.44%)
 * Yugoslavs = 80,721 (1.08%)
 * Croats = 70,602 (0.94%)
 * Montenegrins = 69,049 (0.92%)
 * Albanians = 61,647 (0.82%)
 * Slovaks = 59,021 (0.79%)
 * "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 40,054 (0.53%)
 * Romanians (self-declared) = 34,576 (0.46%)
 * Macedonians = 25,847 (0.35%)
 * Bulgarians = 20,497 (0.27%)
 * Bunjevci = 20,012 (0.27%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 19,503 (0.26%)
 * Rusyns = 15,905 (0.21%)
 * Ukrainians = 5,354 (0.07%)
 * Slovenes = 5,104
 * Gorani = 4,581
 * Germans = 3,901
 * Czechs = 2,211
 * others = 11,711 (0.19%)
 * regional affiliation = 11,485 (0.15%)
 * unknown = 75,483 (1.01%)
 * unspecified = 107,732 (1.44%)

2011 census

 * TOTAL = 7,186,862
 * Serbs = 5,988,150 (83.32%)
 * Hungarians = 253,899 (3.53%)
 * Roma = 147,604 (2.05%)
 * Bosniaks = 145,278 (2.02%)
 * Croats = 57,900 (0.81%)
 * Slovaks = 52,750 (0.73%)
 * Albanians = 5,809 (0.08%) (mostly boycotted the census, estimate c. 50,000 i.e. 0.7%)
 * Montenegrins = 38,527 (0.54%)
 * "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 35,330 (0.49%)
 * Romanians (self-declared) = 29,332 (0.41%)
 * Yugoslavs = 23,303 (0.32%)
 * Macedonians = 22,755 (0.32%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 22,301 (0.31%)
 * Bulgarians = 18,543 (0.26%)
 * Bunjevci = 16,706 (0.23%)
 * Rusyns = 14,246 (0.2%)
 * Gorani = 7,767 (0.11%)
 * Ukrainians = 4,903 (0.07%)
 * Germans = 4,064 (0.06%)
 * Slovenes = 4,033 (0.06%)
 * others = 17,558 (0.24%)
 * regional affiliation = 30,771 (0.43%)
 * unknown = 81,740 (1.14%)
 * unspecified = 160,346 (2.23%)

2022 census

 * TOTAL = 6,647,003
 * Serbs = 5,360,239 (80.64%)
 * Hungarians = 184,442 (2.77%)
 * Bosniaks = 153,801 (2.31%)
 * Roma = 131,936 (1.98%)
 * Albanians = 61,687 (0.93%)
 * Slovaks = 41,730 (0.63%)
 * Croats = 39,107 (0.59%)
 * Yugoslavs = 27,143 (0.41%)
 * Romanians (self-declared) = 23,044 (0.35%)
 * "Vlachs" (Romanians) = 21,013 (0.32%)
 * Montenegrins = 20,238 (0.30%)
 * Macedonians = 14,767 (0.22%)
 * ethnic Muslims = 13,011 (0.20%)
 * Bulgarians = 12,918 (0.19%)
 * Rusyns = 11,483 (0.17%)
 * Bunjevci = 11,104 (0.17%)
 * Russians = 10,486 (0.16%)
 * Gorani = 7,700 (0.12%)
 * Ukrainians = 3,969 (0.06%)
 * Slovenes = 2,829 (0.04%)
 * Germans = 2,573 (0.04%)
 * unknown = 322,013 (4.84%)
 * Did not declare = 136,198 (2.05%)
 * regional affiliation = 11,929 (0.18%)
 * others = 4,126 (0.06%)

1880–1887

 * Source: 

1900–1912

 * Source: