About Opentopia
Opentopia Directory Encyclopedia Tools

Demographic history of Vojvodina

Encyclopedia : D : DE : DEM : Demographic history of Vojvodina


This article is part of the series:
Republic of Serbia
See also:
[ view] • [ talk] • [ edit]

Vojvodina's demographic history reflects its rich history and its former location at the border of the Ottoman and Habsburg empires and at the confluence of various peoples, making it a hotbed of invasion, colonization, and assimilation processes. Currently there are more than 25 ethnic groups living in Vojvodina and six official languages.

Contents

Demographic history

The area of Vojvodina had been inhabited since the Paleolithic period. Before the Roman conquest in the 1st century BC, Illyrian, Thracian and Celtic tribes inhabited the region.

During Roman rule, original inhabitants were heavily Romanized, later to become known by the name of Vlachs. The original population hadn't entirely disappeared, since they left certain genetic traces which survive among the modern Serbs, Croats, and Romanians.

Vojvodina was invaded by Turanic nomads such as the Huns and Avars, as well as Germanic Gepids and Langobards, but they were not in great numbers, so after their military decayed, they were quickly absorbed by the local population, without leaving much ethnic traces in population of the region.

During the early medieval migrations, Slavs (Severans, Abodrites, Braničevci and Serbs) settled today's Vojvodina in the 6th and 7th centuries, but pockets of Romanised population remained in the area. Until the 13th century, the region had dominant Slavic population.

Parts of Vojvodina were conquered by the Hungarian Kingdom in the 10th century, and Hungarians started to settle in the region. The first Hungarian settlers were not numerous, but the larger number of Hungarians settled in the region since the 13th century and Hungarization of local Slavic population followed this. By the 16th century much of the local Slavs were Hungarized. By the opinion of some researchers, the non-Hungarized descendants of these local Slavs are present day Šokci. Though Serbs were part of the aboriginal Slavic population in the territory of Vojvodina (especially in Srem), an increasing number of Serbs began settling from the 14th century onward. By 1483, according to a Hungarian source, as much as half of the population of the Vojvodina territory at the time would have been made up of Serbs. Because of the presence of the large Serb population, in many historical records and maps, which were written and drawn between 15th and 18th centuries, territory of present day Vojvodina was named Rascia (Raška, Serbia) and Little Raška (Little Serbia).

The Ottoman Empire took control of Vojvodina in the 16th century, and this caused a massive depopulation of the region. Most of the Hungarians and many local Serbs fled from the region and escaped to the north. The majority of those who left in the region were Serbs, mainly now engaging either in farming either in Ottoman military service.

Ethnic territory of the South Slavs between 16th and 18th century
Enlarge
Ethnic territory of the South Slavs between 16th and 18th century

Under Ottoman policy, many Serbs were newly settled in the region. During the Ottoman rule, most of the inhabitants of the Vojvodina region were Serbs. In that time, villages were mostly populated with Serbs, while cities were populated with Muslims and Serbs.

The Habsburg Monarchy took control of Vojvodina among other lands by the treaties of Karlovci (1699) and Požarevac (1718). Following the establishment of the Habsburg rule, the Muslim population fled from the region. During the Habsburg administration, many new Serb settlers from the Ottoman Empire immigrated to the region. In 1687, the northern parts of the region were settled by ethnic Bunjevci.

Many other non-Serb colonists also settled in the territory of present day Vojvodina during the 18th and 19th century. They were mainly Germans and Hungarians, but also Rusyns, Slovaks, Romanians, and others. Because of this colonization, Serbs lost the absolute ethnic majority in the region, and Vojvodina became one of the most ethnically diverse regions of Europe.

Still, Serbs remained the largest ethnic group in the region. According to 1910 census, Serbs comprised 33.8% of the population in the territory of present day Vojvodina. After Serbs, the most numerous ethnic groups were Hungarians (28.1%) and Germans (21.4%).

In 1918, Vojvodina became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes and new Serb settlers started to come to the region. As the consequence of the Second World War events, most of the German population fled from the region after this war and they were replaced with Serb and Montenegrin colonists. In 1948 census, Serbs were absolute majority in Vojvodina again (51%), and this percent rose to 65% in 2002 census. The multiethnic character of the region is also preserved.

17th, 18th and 19th century data

1690

In 1690, about 210,000 Serbs lived in Vojvodina (excluding Srem). In this time, almost entire population of the region was composed of Serbs, also including some Šokci.

1715

According to the Austrian census in Bačka from 1715, Serbs, Bunjevci, and Šokci comprised 97.6% of population.

1720

The 1720 census in Bačka recorded 104,569 citizens, including:

After the Treaty of Passarowitz (1718), the first Austrian census recorded in Banat about 20,000 citizens, mostly Serbs.

1820

The 1820 census in Bačka recorded 387,914 citizens, including:

Results of different censa in Vojvodina between 1880 and 2002

Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 census municipality data
Enlarge
Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 census municipality data

Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 census settlement data
Enlarge
Ethnic map of Vojvodina based on the 2002 census settlement data

1880 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 416,116 35.5
Germans 285,920 24.4
Hungarians 265,287 22.6
Croats, Bunjevci & Šokci 72,486 6.2
Romanians 69,668 5.9
Slovaks 43,318 3.7
Rusyns & Ukrainians 9,299 0.8
Others 10,635 0.9
TOTAL 1,172,729 100

1890 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 457,873 34.4
Hungarians 324,430 24.4
Germans 321,563 24.2
Croats, Bunjevci & Šokci 80,404 6
Romanians 73,492 5.5
Slovaks 49,834 3.7
Rusyns & Ukrainians 11,022 0.8
Others 12,525 1
TOTAL 1,331,143 100

1900 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 483,176 33.7
Hungarians 378,634 26.4
Germans 336,430 23.5
Croats, Bunjevci & Šokci 80,901 5.6
Romanians 74,718 5.2
Slovaks 53,832 3.8
Rusyns & Ukrainians 12,663 0.9
Others 12,394 0.9
TOTAL 1,432,748 100

1910 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 510,186 33.8
Hungarians 424,555 28.1
Germans 323,779 21.4
Romanians 75,223 5
Slovaks 56,689 3.7
Croats 34,089 2.3
Rusyns 13,479 0.9
Others 72,804 4.8

1921 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 526,134 34.7
Hungarians 370,040 24.4
Germans 333,272 22
Croats 122,684 8.1
Romanians 65,197 4.3
Slovaks 58,273 3.8
Rusyns 13,664 0.9
Others 25,182 1.7

1931 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 528,000 33
Hungarians 413,000 26
Germans 343,000 21
Croats 120,000 7
Romanians 78,000 5
Slovaks & Czechs 67,000 4
Rusyns 21,000 1
Jews 21,000 1
Others 37,000 2

1941 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 577,067 35.3
Hungarians 465,920 28.5
Germans 318,259 19.4
Croats 105,810 6.5
Others 169,311 10.3

1948 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 841,246 50.6
Hungarians 428,932 25.8
Croats 134,232 8.1
Slovaks 72,032 4.3
Romanians 59,263 3.6
Germans 31,821 1.9
Montenegrins 30,589 1.9
Rusyns and Ukrainians 22,083 1.3
Macedonians 9,090 0.5
Roma 7,585 0.4
Slovenes 7,223 0.4
Russians 5,148 0.3
Czechs 3,976 0.3
Bulgarians 3,501 0.2
Yugoslavs 1,050 0.1
Others 5,441 0.3

1953 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 865,538 50.9
Hungarians 435,179 25.6
Croats 127,027 7.5
Slovaks 71,153 4.2
Romanians 57,218 3.4
Montenegrins 30,516 1.8
Rusyns 23,038 1.4
Macedonians 11,622 0.7
Others 78,254 4.6

1961 census

Ethnicity Number %
Serbs 1,017,713 54.9
Hungarians 442,560 23.9
Croats 145,341 7.8
Slovaks 73,830 4
Romanians 57,259 3.1
Montenegrins 34,782 1.9
Rusyns 23,038 1.4
Macedonians 11,622 0.7
Others 83,480 4.4

1971 census

1981 census

1991 census

N.B.: the third largest ethnic group in 1991 census were Yugoslavs (about 8%), but in this listing they are counted in the "other" category.

2002 census

See also

References

  1. Dr Dušan J. Popović; Srbi u Vojvodini; knjige 1-3; Novi Sad; 1990.
  2. Dr Branislav Bukurov; Bačka, Banat i Srem; Novi Sad; 1978.
  3. Milan Tutorov; Banatska rapsodija - istorika Zrenjanina i Banata; Novi Sad; 2001.
  4. Borislav Jankulov; Pregled kolonizacije Vojvodine u XVIII i XIX veku; Novi Sad - Pančevo; 2003.
  5. Lazo M. Kostić; Srpska Vojvodina i njene mannine; Novi Sad; 1999.

External links

 

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.

Search Titles
0123456789
ABCDEFGHIJ
KLMNOPQRST
UVWXYZ?

E-mail this article to:

Personal Message: