The population in Kosovo has decreased by about eight percent compared to 2011

2024-05-27 12:56:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

The Statistics Agency of Kosovo announced on Monday that about one million and 600 thousand inhabitants have participated in the population census process in Kosovo, which was completed last week. This number does not include the diaspora.

"The latest data regarding the diaspora are about 600 thousand and the expectations are that this number will increase even more because the deadline for them has been extended until August 31", said Avni Kastrati from this institution.

According to these data, the number of the population in Kosovo has decreased by about eight percent, given that in the last registration process that took place 13 years ago, one million and 740 thousand inhabitants participated.

Mr. Kastrati said that the population census process was challenging in the northern part of Kosovo, inhabited by a majority of Serbs.

The largest political entity of Kosovo Serbs, which was founded and is supported by Belgrade - Lista Serbe, which at the start of this process called on this community to boycott the population census.

"In some areas, the Serbian community from a political point of view has put some kind of pressure on the recorders and we have recaptured recorders in many Serbian areas up to three times we have trained and released recorders in the field. In the last week, the Serbian community, seeing that it is necessary to register, has engaged", said Mr. Kastrati.

According to the Law on population, household and housing registration, any person can be fined from 30 to 2 thousand euros, if they refuse to provide the information requested by the registrar. This does not include information on ethnicity and religion, which were not mandatory.

Mr. Kastrati said that now begins the period of data processing, analysis and distribution, while the final data is expected to be published in the first part of July.

The next population census in Kosovo will take place in 2031./ VOA