Montenegro census results reveal majority identifies as Montenegrin

Montenegro’s 2023 census results were revealed on Tuesday, indicating that the majority of the small country’s population identifies as Montenegrin, about 41%.

The count shows a decrease in Montenegrins compared to the last census, held in 2011, when roughly 45% identified as such. Last year’s census shows that the percentage of citizens identifying as Serbs has increased by more than four per cent, now reaching 33%.

Of the rest, 9.45% are Bosniaks, 4.97% are Albanians, 2.06% are Russians and 1.63% are Muslims. 2.88% of the population did not want to declare an ethnicity. The results were published by the Statistical Office of Montenegro, MONSTAT.

Montenegro’s ethnic make up has long been a sensitive issue, as in the rest of the Balkans, especially since the break up of Yugoslavia in the 1990s.

Questions of ethnicity and nationality therefore play an important political role when census results are revealed.

Montenegro separated from Serbia in 2006, becoming the last republic to split from former Yugoslavia. And while Serbia and Montenegro have had relatively good relations, ethnic tensions are an enduring presence in the Western Balkans.

As the population of Serbs in Montenegro continues to rise, this could have an effect on pro-Serbian politics in the country, as well as that of Montenegrin nationalists.