SkopjeDiem Macedonia in English
Director of the State Statistical Office (SSO) Apostol Simovski presented at a special ceremony in Skopje the final official results of the Population Census that was conducted in the country in the second half of 2021. “We conducted a major statistical operation, and we conducted it rather successfully. Still, we faced challenges like the boycott of the census by certain individuals and political groups. We also need to bear in mind that this operation was conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic, which was key factor for many other people to decide to not participate in the census. Indeed, calls for boycott caused certain damage, but in the end did not manage to prevent or destroy the operation. This resulted in absence of 312,260 citizens, the data for which were taken from the institutions of the state which hold them, and for them the graphs for ethnicity, mother language and religion remain empty,” Simovski said. According to the official results of the 2021 Population Census, the total resident population of North Macedonia on 5 September 2021 was 1,836,713 inhabitants. Of these, 50.4% are females and 49.6% are males. According to their ethnic affiliation, 58.44% percent of the population declared themselves as Macedonians, 24.3% percent as Albanians, 3.86% as Turks, 2.53% as Roma, 0.47% as Vlachs, 1.3% as Serbs, 0.87% as Bosnian, and others. 61.38% of the enumerated population stated that their mother tongue is Macedonian, 24.34% Albanian mother tongue, 3.41% Turkish, 1.73% Roma, 0.17%, Vlach, 0.61% Serbian, and 0.85% Bosnian. With the Census 2021, Macedonian citizens living and residing abroad for more than one year were given the possibility of self-enumeration via a web application that was available on the Census website. This opportunity was used by 258,932 of our fellow citizens, of whom 24.55% declared themselves as Macedonians, 66.42% as Albanians, 4.78% as Turks, and others. This category of citizens is not part of the total resident population of the Republic of North Macedonia. PM Dimitar Kovacevski, First Deputy PM Artan Grubi and several other ministers and state officials attended the event for revelation of the results, and congratulated Simovski and SSO on the successfully completed statistical operation, and the government came out with a statement in which they welcome the results of the census, saying that the updated data about the population will be of great importance for further creation of policies. Spokeswoman of the European Commission (EC) Ana Pisonero also extended congratulations in the name of EC to North Macedonia for the successfully completed statistical operation.
