ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) - According to many statistical sources, it is assessed that from the mid-1991 to 1998 the number of residents in Croatia was reduced by 6.5 percent. According to the latest census, in 1991 Croatia had 4,518,175
inhabitants and seven years later in 1998 there were 4,224,418. Those figures are published by the latest issue of a journal for social issues entitled "Social Research (Drustvena istrazivanja) released by the Zagreb-based "Ivo Pilar" institute of social sciences. According to Jakov Gelo, war can be held as a crucial factor for the reduction of the population by almost 300,000 between 1991 and 1998. Gelo added that the impact of the Homeland War would be even more perceptible in the first decades of the third millennium. In addition to the reduction of the number of inhabitants, another undesirable process for the demographic situation was "the
ZAGREB, Jan 20 (Hina) - According to many statistical sources, it is
assessed that from the mid-1991 to 1998 the number of residents in
Croatia was reduced by 6.5 percent. According to the latest census,
in 1991 Croatia had 4,518,175 inhabitants and seven years later in
1998 there were 4,224,418.
Those figures are published by the latest issue of a journal for
social issues entitled "Social Research (Drustvena istrazivanja)
released by the Zagreb-based "Ivo Pilar" institute of social
sciences.
According to Jakov Gelo, war can be held as a crucial factor for the
reduction of the population by almost 300,000 between 1991 and
1998. Gelo added that the impact of the Homeland War would be even
more perceptible in the first decades of the third millennium.
In addition to the reduction of the number of inhabitants, another
undesirable process for the demographic situation was "the
disturbance of the territorial distribution" of the population and
its rapid demographic senescence.
United Nations demographic experts have given also dramatic
assessments that by 2050 Croatia will have just 3.3 million people
with the current level of fertility.
In the 1991-1998 period about 130,000 persons emigrated from
Croatia and this number did not include refugees. Thus, according
to assessments made in the mid 1998, some 415,000 Croatian citizens
(those who recently left the country and those who were counted as
emigrants according to the 1991 census) lived abroad.
Concerning the return to Croatia, different figures have been made
public so far. The Interior Ministry was quoted by the magazine as
saying that in the 1990-1997 period, 30,429 persons were registered
as returnees-immigrants. Demographers, however, maintain that
just 16 percent was real returnees.
They wonder how one can expect the return of Croatian immigrants and
refugees from western European countries, United States, Canada or
Australia, when Croatia has double-digit unemployment and there
are still no visible signs of future stabilisation of political end
economic developments in neighbouring Bosnia-Herzegovina which
also affects the return, stay or emigration of Croats.
Reports and papers on how many residents Croatia has had since the
Homeland War, population structure, dynamics and distribution of
refugees and displaced people, de-population processes as well as
on other related topics were written by Andjelko Akrap, Jakov Gelo,
Marinko Grizelj, Ante F. Markotic, Nenad Pokos and Drazen Zivic.
(hina) ms