North Macedonia’s statistics office published the preliminary data from the census conducted last September on March 30, showing that the population now numbers just over 1.83mn people, a decline of about 180,000 people compared to the previous headcount two decades ago.

The other key takeaway is that the percentage of Macedonians, who in 2002 were over 64% of the population, now make up just over 58%.

When the previous census was carried out in 2002 the population totalled 2.02mn. No census has since been conducted until now, and while the population was estimated at 2.08mn in 2019, the latest census shows the actual figure is considerably lower. 

The declining population, according to experts, is due to two factors: high mortality and emigration. 

Long-delayed population count 

The census is considered the most important statistical operation for the country, as the last one was held 19 years ago, while the previous attempt in 2011 was called off.

The data from the census will be useful for policymaking in the economic, educational, development, investment, agriculture, health and other areas.

The government assessed that the census was successful and provides relevant information on the real situation of the population.

“Census data was assessed as reliable, credible, valid and useful for policy planning,” the government said.

Director of the statistics office Apostol Simovski said that the census operation was not easy to conduct, and on top of many delays, the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic also made its implementation more difficult. However, he said that the challenge was successfully overcome, without consequences for the public health of citizens.

The census was originally scheduled for April 1-21, but the opposition VMRO-DPMNE party repeatedly urged the government to delay the census due to the worsening of the epidemiological situation.

After that, North Macedonia’s parliament adopted legal changes on April 2 that enabled the census to be officially pushed back until September.

Data breakdown 

Of the country’s total population, 58.44% are Macedonians and 24.3% are Albanians, North Macedonia’s largest ethnic minority.

61.38% of the population uses the Macedonian language and 24.34% said Albanian is their mother tongue.

In general relations between Macedonians and ethnic Albanians are good, but is not excluded that the census data may encourage Albanians to seek more rights.

For Ali Ahmeti, the leader of the ethnic Albanian Democratic Union for Integration (DUI), a coalition partner in the government, the census is successful.

He said that ethnic Albanians, including those in the diaspora, accounted for 29.5% of total population while there are 22.8% ethnic Albanians in the city of Skopje versus 20% in 2002.

Among other ethnic groups Turks accounted for 3.86% of the population, Roma 2.53%, Serbs 1.3%, Bosniaks 0.87%, Vlachs 0.47% and Bulgarians 0.19%.

The census enabled citizens from North Macedonia living abroad to register online and this opportunity was used by 258,932 people, of which 24.55% declared themselves to be Macedonians, 66.42% as Albanians and 4.78% as Turks.

Out of the total population, 50.4% are women and 49.6% are men. 

The population of the capital Skopje is 526,202.

According to religious affiliation, 46.14% of the population declared themselves to be Orthodox Christian, 32.17% as Muslims and 0.37% as Catholics.

According to the census, the number of households is 598,632, and the average number of household members is 3.06.

A curiosity is that in North Macedonia, there are 51 people who reached the age of 100 years.

^{The population of North Macedonia's capital Skopje is 526,202.}

Critical reactions

Enumerating the population is a political issue in North Macedonia. While the census data seem to be acceptable for the Macedonian and ethnic Albanian ruling parties, both the main opposition party VMRO-DPMNE and smaller parties representing the Macedonian majority or other ethnic communities say the results do not reflect the real situation.

About 132,000 people, or 7.2% of the population, were not registered by enumerators, but were registered administratively, without taking account their ethnicity, language and religious affiliation. This, and the fact that only 260,000 people from the diaspora registered in the census, caused the opposition parties to question the census results.

VMRO-DPMNE leader Hristijan Mickoski said that the census is incomplete given that the ethnicity of 7.2% of the population remained unexplained. 

According to him, the boycott of the census by part of the population made it difficult to get the real picture of the number of Macedonians in the country.

“From the very beginning we had many remarks about this statistical operation, but except that the census is incomplete, the conclusion is that the vast majority or more than 90% of those who were not enumerated are part of the Macedonian people according to the municipalities where they live,” Mickoski said.

Mickoski said that as soon as VMRO-DPMNE comes to power, the new government will conduct a new e-census, which will show relevant data about the population.

According to Pavle Trajanov, head of the small Democratic Union party, about 90% of over 130,000 citizens who were not enumerated are ethnic Macedonians.

According to analysis by his party, Trajanov said in a show on TV24 that if this is taken into account ethnic Albanians would make up only 20% of the population and their political leaders should take responsibility for that, Faktor.mk reported.

Trajanov said that his party had “insider” information during the census that the census will not reflect the factual situation.

Ethnic Turk and Bosniak politicians also do not recognise the census results.

“Serious omissions have been made in the census process, the Constitution has been violated, and many citizens have not been enumerated,” the National Coordination Body for the Census of the Turkish community said.

The Bosniak Democratic Union stated that the census results are unacceptable, saying that they are convinced that the number of Bosniaks living outside the territory of North Macedonia is much bigger.

Bulgarian politicians complain 

There were also complaints from Bulgarian politicians after the census showed that only 0.19% of the total population in the country declared themselves to be ethnic Bulgarians.

Among other demands, Sofia has been pushing for Bulgarians to be entered as a minority in the constitution as a precondition to allow North Macedonia to launch EU accession talks. Sofia vetoed the EU accession negotiations with Skopje for two years over language and history issues.

Some Bulgarian politicians do not accept the census results, saying that the number of Bulgarians is much higher because many people from North Macedonia took Bulgarian passports in recent years, for which they needed to confirm to the Bulgarian authorities that they have Bulgarian roots.

This means that Bulgaria will have another motive to block North Macedonia in European integration, warned Trajanov of the Democratic Union.

Bulgarian ex-foreign minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said that she talked with organisations representing ethnic Bulgarians in North Macedonia who think that the data are falsified. Other Bulgarian politicians like MEP Andrey Kovatchev and Slavi Trifonov were also critical of the census.