Population
Demographics of the Republic of Macedonia , Data of FAO, year 2005 ; Number of inhabitants in thousands.
Some statistics are from the 2002 census data, while the rest are estimates from the CIA World Factbook publication.
Age structure
Population growth rate
Net migration rate
Sex ratio
Infant mortality rate
Life expectancy at birth
Total fertility rate
HIV/AIDS
Nationality
Ethnic groups (based on 2002 census) Totally 2,022,547
Religions
Languages (2002 census)
Literacy
TrendsThe process of industrialization and urbanization after the WWII that caused the population growth to decrease involved the Macedonians to a greater extent than the Muslims. Rates of increase are very high among rural Muslims: Turks and Torbesh are 2.5 times those of the Macedonian majority, while Albanians and Roma have 3 times as high. This has resulted in a significant demographic change as the Albanian population part has swelled from 8% after WWII to 25% in the 1990s. This has caused an increase in political tension and ultimately after a brief conflict forced the country to undertake reforms that decentralized the government. In 1994, Macedonian Slavs had a TFR of 2.07, while the TFR of others were - Albanian(4.10), Turkish(3.55), Roma(4.01), Serb(2.07), Vlax(1.88) and Others(3.05). The TFR by religions was - Christian (2.17,with 2.20 for Catholics and 2.06 for Orthodox), Islam (4.02) and others (2.16) [4]. Macedonians applying for Bulgarian citizenshipAccording to the 2002 census, 1,417 Macedonians claimed a Bulgarian ethnic identity. Paradoxically, during the last few years there has been around 60,000 Macedonians applying for Bulgarian citizenship and some 10,000 ethnic Macedonians have already obtained Bulgarian passports, amongst them Macedonia’s former PM Ljubco Georgievski. Bulgaria’s admission to the EU is evidently a powerful motivation factor. In order to obtain it they must sign a statement proving they are Bulgarian by origin.[5][6][7][8] [9]. See alsoExternal linksReferences
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