Montenegro with less than 5% of Albanian residents

In Montenegro, 41.1 percent of citizens declare themselves as Montenegrins, while 32.9 percent as Serbs, show the results of the last population census, which took place in December 2023.

They were published on Tuesday by the Directorate of Statistics in this country, MONSTAT.

By comparison, in the penultimate census - in 2011 - 45 percent were Montenegrins and about 29 percent were Serbs.

The latest data also show that the population of Montenegro consists of 9.45% Bosniaks, 4.97% Albanians, 2% Russians and 1.6% Muslims.

Compared to the penultimate census, the number of Albanians seems stable: in 2011 they were 4.91%, or 30,439, while now they are 30,978.

In the last census, about 2.8% of the population did not declare.

On the other hand, 623,633 inhabitants live in Montenegro, which means 0.6% more than in 2011.

When asked what language they speak, 36.2% said the Montenegrin language, while 43.5% said the Serbian language.

According to religion, citizens of Montenegro are divided into Orthodox - 71.1%, Muslims - 20% and Catholics - 3.2%.

The regular population census in Montenegro was supposed to take place in 2021, but was initially postponed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

After that, it was postponed several times, due to the disbelief of the opposition in that process.

The Democratic Party of Socialists repeatedly expressed doubts that the real purpose of the census was to increase the number of Serbs in Montenegro and decrease the number of Montenegrins.

For months, pro-Serbian and pro-Russian forces and media campaigned, asking citizens to declare themselves as Serbs.

The Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Porfirije, also joined the campaign, who called on citizens to identify themselves as members of the Serbian people and believers of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who speak the Serbian language.

The leaders of this church deny the Montenegrin nation, classifying it as part of the Serbian corpus.

At that time, the Serbian president, Aleksandar Vučić, constantly spoke about the importance of registration in determining the number of Serbs in Montenegro./ REL