Kosovo has shed nearly 12 percent of its population, according to census data released Thursday, the country having lost nearly 200,000 inhabitants since the last survey, conducted in 2011.
Kosovo’s population fell from nearly 1.8 million people to just over 1.6 million, said the Kosovo Statistical Agency (KSA) in a statement.
Ethnic Albanians comprise roughly 90 percent of the population, while ethnic Serbs account for just over three percent, said the KSA.
Census officials said their final figure relied on estimates for the total number of ethnic Serbs.
Many in the community had boycotted the census, especially in municipalities near the northern border with Serbia, said KSA chief Avni Kastrati.
Kosovo has had to contend with a massive outflow of people seeking work abroad.
According to official estimates, over 800,000 Kosovars live and work in EU member states, about half of whom reside in Germany.
The diaspora has long served as a financial lifeline Kosovo, by sending hundreds of millions of euros in remittances to their families annually.
Census counts are delicate matters in many Balkan countries, where plunging birth rates, mass migration and ethnic tensions undercut efforts to provide accurate population figures.
Animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move that Belgrade has refused to acknowledge.
Add Comment