SERBIA
Population

Cities in SERBIA

Population

Population composition

Serbia has a far from homogeneous population composition, with 83.3% Serbs, the rest of the population consists of Albanians, Hungarians, Romanians, Croats, Bulgarians, Bosniaks, Slovaks, Ruthenians, Vlachs and Roma.

The Serbs are therefore by far the largest population group. Parts of Vojvodina have large Hungarian and Romanian populations; in total 37 different ethnic groups live here, often fully integrated into Serbian society. Culture and original language of all these populations is maintained and even encouraged in Vojvodina without much problem.

After the Second World War, many Serbs moved from southern Serbia to Vojvodina to take the place of killed Hungarian Jews and expelled Germans. This made the Hungarians a minority in Vojvodina. In the early 1990s, many Serb refugees from Croatia and Bosnia were housed in Vojvodina. When that happened, many Hungarians moved to Hungary because they were driven from their homes by Serbian civilian militias.

The Muslim Kosovars from Kosovo speak Albanian. For centuries, the relationship between the Kosovars and the Serbs has not been settled, and in particular the annexation of Kosovo by Serbia after the Balkan Wars in 1912-1913 has never been accepted. After the acts of war in 1998 and 1999, the number of Serbs in Kosovo had fallen to approximately 30,000, partly as a result of ethnic cleansing. Minorities in Kosovo are Muslims, Croats, Catholic Albanians, Gorani (Serbian speaking Muslims) and Ashkali (Albanized Roma).

The Roma arrived in Serbia from India around the 10th century. The Serb Roma are not as badly off as the Roma in other Eastern European countries, but only a minority have fully integrated into Serbian society. The Roma are still far behind the rest of the population in education and health care.

Serbia still has several hundred thousand refugees on its territory from Serb enclaves in Croatia such as Krajina or Slavonia or from non-Serb areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This also includes ethnic Serbs and Roma from Kosovo-Metohija. Most refugees live in Belgrade, Vojvodina and the municipalities of Loznica and Šabac in western Serbia.

Demographic data

In 2024, 6.7 million people lived in Serbia.
Population growth was less than 1% at the start of the 21st century and even dropped to -0.61% in 2024.
The average life expectancy is 72.7 years for men and 78.1 years for women.
Serbia has a population structure that is very similar to a western country like the Netherlands; 14.4% of the population is between 0 and 14 years; 65.6% are between the ages of 15 and 65; 20% are 65 years or older. (2024)
Serbia has a birth rate of 8.8 births per 1000 inhabitants and a death rate of 14.9 per 1000 inhabitants.
The largest city in Serbia is Belgrade with 1,4 million inhabitants. (2024)

Sources