Montenegro – the most multinational country in Southeast Europe

The final publication of the results from the population census in Montenegro, held in 2023, eliminated speculations about possible changes in the national population structure, because we are dealing with almost identical data as in 2011, proving that this is the most multinational country in Southeast Europe

The broad opinion has been informed that the preliminary data on the population, family and housing census in Montenegro, which was held from December 3 to 28, 2023, by MONSTAT was presented on January 25, where the total number of the population is 633.158 inhabitants or 2.1% more than in 2011 (620.029 inhabitants). In Montenegro, there are 217.441 households and 396.873 apartments.

While with a considerable delay, the definitive data were presented at the press conference on October 15, which are related to the national structure of the population, gender, age, language, religion and citizenship.

Speculations with the structure of the population

Precisely in the absence of official publication of the population structure at the right time, various individuals have presented information regarding the national population structure. Such an issue is mainly related to the number of nationally declared Montenegrins and Serbs, because thanks to political reports, in recent years in Montenegro this issue has been highly politicized. 
Whereas, if we analyze the data from past population censuses (1948-2011), there are sufficient facts that numerical falsifications were made in this direction, mainly in favor of Montenegrins and to the detriment of other peoples, which was contrary to reality in this multinational environment. In this aspect, falsifications have also been made against the Albanians, which is proven if the data is analyzed according to the settlements inhabited by the Albanian population in their years as an autochthonous population in this environment, which presents an issue for special research.

Structure of gender, age and citizenship

also Arberi October 15, 2024 Less than five percent of the inhabitants of Montenegro are Albanians

According to the gender structure, in Montenegro 316.862 of the inhabitants are female (50.8%), while 306.807 (49.2%) are male. The average age of the population in Montenegro is 39.7 years, which is 2% higher than in the 2011 census, while women are on average 2.5 years older than men. In Montenegro there are 78,4% of the adult population.

565.804 individuals or 90.73% have the citizenship of Montenegro, while 10.691 (1.71%) have dual citizenship. It should also be noted that there are 46.878 (7.52%) foreign citizens residing in Montenegro, while 240 (0.04%) are stateless, while 20 residents have not declared.

The national and religious structure did not undergo major changes

According to the national structure, the following were declared: Montenegrins 256 (436%), Serbs 41.1 (205.370%), Bosniaks 32.9 (58%), Albanians 956 (9.45%), Muslims 30.978 (4.97%), Roma 10.162 (1.63%) and Croats 5.629 (1%) and 5150 (0.97%) did not want to declare. This category also includes Russians, 17.907 (2.88%).

According to the religious structure, the following were declared: Orthodox 443.394 (71.1%), Islamic 124.668 (19.9%), Catholic 20.408 (3.2%), Atheist/Agnostic 14.260 and 10.691 were not declared.

Changes for mother tongue

215.299 citizens (34.52%), Serbs 269.307 (43.18%), Bosnians 45.500 (7.30%), Albanians 32.725 (5.25%), Russian 14.731 (2.36%), Serbo-Croatians 13.232 (2.12%) have declared Montenegrin as their mother tongue. ) and 10.691 (1.71%) were not declared.

If we compare the data on national and linguistic affiliation, it becomes clear that Montenegrins have identity defects, because about 6% of Montenegrins have not declared that Montenegrin is their mother tongue, but Serbian (!). 

On the other hand, the Serbs in this aspect have a significant increase of 10%, which proves that the Serbian language is the first in Montenegro. And such a finding is in favor of the Serbian political parties who have declared that they will try to make the Serbian language an official language in Montenegro, because it is spoken by the largest number of citizens in this environment. Likewise, among Bosniaks, the number of those who have the Bosnian language as their mother tongue is lower than those who have declared themselves as such in the national aspect by 2.48%.

While the opposite in this aspect is happening with Albanian speakers, who in linguistic terms are more numerous than those who declare themselves in national terms, for 0.28%, an issue that deserves a special analysis, for those municipalities where Albanians are the population autochthonous.

Half of the population in four municipalities

Podgorica has the most inhabitants - 179.505, followed by Nikshiqi 65.705, Tivari 45.812 and Bjello Pole 38.662 inhabitants. 52.9% of the total population in Montenegro is concentrated in these four municipalities.

Shavniku 1.569, Plluzhina 2.177, Zhabjaku 2.941 and Andrijevica 3.910 have the fewest inhabitants.
Compared to 2011, nine municipalities have an increase in the number of inhabitants, where Budva has the highest increase.

Regional differences

According to the population census data, regionally, it appears that the Northern region in Montenegro is involved in the phenomenon of depopulation because for fifty years 1971-2023, the number of inhabitants decreased by 70.617 (30.66%) from 230.309 ( 1971) at 159.662 (2023).

On the other hand, the Central region had an increase of 106.944 inhabitants (34.54%) from 202.612 (1971) to 309556 (2023). The Southern region also had an increase of 65.277 inhabitants (39.81%) from 96.683 (1971) to 163.960 (2023). 

This phenomenon of depopulation proves the disparity of economic development in the regional aspect, which, thanks to the forecasts, will continue in the future, where the Central and Southern regions will be more attractive.

Depopulation – disturbing phenomenon

According to the data published in 2011 in Montenegro there were 43 settlements without inhabitants (3.3%), while now this number has increased to 74 (5.1%) of the total number in Montenegro.

On the other hand, the number of settlements with 10 inhabitants or less has increased significantly, which are 304 (20.8%), while in 2011 they were 120 or 9.2%. Such a data proves that for the next few years a quarter of the settlements will be without inhabitants, which is evidence of the migration of the population, namely of the depopulation of the settlements!

The most transparent recording yet

also region 5 August 2026 Montenegro hosted more visitors than residents over the weekend

Taking into account that the data from the population census, according to the agreement signed by the political factors, two separate processes were carried out, and that in the control of the data, where the citizens had the opportunity to do it through the software (1- October 7) data on ethno-cultural features, but also data control by representatives of political parties, so it can rightly be said that we are dealing with the most transparent registration so far, with the entire control mechanism, as never before now.

To this finding should be added the data that the population census process was politicized by political parties, especially the Serbian ones, but such an action did not affect the mechanical change of the national population structure, because it remained almost identical as in the 2011 census without major changes that have been accepted by the political and governmental structures in the country, from which it appears that Montenegro continues to be the most heterogeneous environment in terms of national, linguistic and religious aspects in South-Eastern Europe.