Demographics of Sandžak
This article is about the demographic features of the population of Sandžak
1948
According to the 1948 Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia population census, over 93% of population of the Serbian part of the region were Serbs and over 91% of population of the Montenegrin part were Montenegrins. The Muslims had the largest share of the population in districts of Priboj and Novi Pazar, and the least in Berane. However, many Slavic Muslims declared themselves as Serbs or Montenegrins in this census. Other nationalities could be found mainly in the Berane district (mostly Albanians) and the smaller numbers of other nationalities existed in the districts of Sjenica, Nova Varoš, and Novi Pazar; while Priboj had no other nationalities. There are still some Albanian villages (Boroštica, Doliće and Ugao) in the Pešter region. Though due to past sociopolitical discrimination of Albanians in the former Yugoslavia after World War Two, these Albanians have opted to refer to themselves in censuses as Bosniaks.[1]
1953
TOTAL - 345,496
- Montenegrins - 141,948 (41.08%)
- Serbs - 118,025 (34.16%)
- Turks - 14,987 (4.33%)
- Yugoslavs - 64,588 (18.69%)
- others - 5,948 (1.74%)
By district:
- Priboj - 20,784
- Serbs - 16,230 (78.08%)
- Turks - 110 (0.52%)
- Montenegrins - 100 (0.48%)
- Yugoslavs - 4,168 (20.05%)
- others - 176 (0.87%)
- Prijepolje - 33,846
- Serbs - 25,665 (75.82%)
- Montenegrins - 396 (1.17%)
- Turks - 51 (0.15%)
- Yugoslavs - 7,526 (22.23%)
- others - 208 (0.63%)
- Nova Varoš - 21,424
- Serbs - 20,865 (97.39%)
- Montenegrins - 27 (0.12%)
- Yugoslavs - 486 (2.26%)
- others - 46 (0.23%)
- Sjenica - 38,179
- Serbs - 23,412 (61.32%)
- Turks - 678 (1.77%)
- Montenegrins - 102 (0.26%)
- Yugoslavs - 102 (0.26%)
- others - 229 (0.62%)
- Novi Pazar - 53,331
- Serbs - 25,177 (50.02%)
- Turks - 11,009 (21.87%)
- Montenegrins - 174 (0.34%)
- Yugoslavs - 13,564 (26.94%)
- others - 407 (0.83%)
- Tutin - 27,983
- Serbs - 5,006 (17.88%)
- Montenegrins - 103 (0.36%)
- Turks - 3,139 (11.21%)
- Yugoslavs - 19,090 (68.21%)
- others - 645 (2.34%)
- Bijelo Polje - 41,432
- Montenegrins - 39,477 (95.28%)
- Serbs - 487 (1.17%)
- Yugoslavs - 1,468 (3.55%)
- Pljevlja] - 40,876
- Montenegrins - 37,368 (91.41%)
- Serbs - 827 (2.02%)
- Yugoslavs - 2,401 (5.87%)
- others - 280 (0.7%)
- Berane - 70,641
- Montenegrins - 64,201 (90.88%)
- Serbs - 356 (0.5%)
- Yugoslavs - 2,127 (3.01%)
- others - 3,957 (5.61%)
Note that many Slavic Muslims declared themselves as Serbs, Montenegrins, Turks (although not actually speaking Turkish) or Yugoslavs in this census.
References
- ↑ Andrea Pieroni, Maria Elena Giusti, & Cassandra L. Quave (2011). "Cross-cultural ethnobiology in the Western Balkans: medical ethnobotany and ethnozoology among Albanians and Serbs in the Pešter Plateau, Sandžak, South-Western Serbia." Human Ecology. 39.(3): 335. "The current population of the Albanian villages is partly “bosniakicised”, since in the last two generations a number of Albanian males began to intermarry with (Muslim) Bosniak women of Pešter. This is one of the reasons why locals in Ugao were declared to be “Bosniaks” in the last census of 2002, or, in Boroštica, to be simply “Muslims”, and in both cases abandoning the previous ethnic label of “Albanians”, which these villages used in the census conducted during “Yugoslavian” times. A number of our informants confirmed that the self-attribution “Albanian” was purposely abandoned in order to avoid problems following the Yugoslav Wars and associated violent incursions of Serbian para-military forces in the area. The oldest generation of the villagers however are still fluent in a dialect of Ghegh Albanian, which appears to have been neglected by European linguists thus far. Additionally, the presence of an Albanian minority in this area has never been brought to the attention of international stakeholders by either the former Yugoslav or the current Serbian authorities."