While waiting for the census and new statistical data, it can already be assumed that these data for the north Montenegro will not be encouraging at all.
In this region of Montenegro, a large number of empty villages are evident, with only a few households, and the lack of inhabitants from autumn to autumn is more and more noticeable in the cities as well.
Thus, from the promise to import labor force from abroad, we have reached the point where, according to some data, only 177,000 citizens live in the territory that occupies 52% of the country’s surface, that is, 28% of the population of Montenegro.
“The north of Montenegro has lost 50,000 inhabitants in the last 25 years. It is a dramatic fact that, according to the 1991 census, the northern region had 218,592 inhabitants, and by 2003 that number had decreased by 23,713 inhabitants. According to the census from that year, there were 194,879 inhabitants in the north, and the trend of population emigration continued until 2011, when the number of inhabitants decreased by 17,042”, Bijelo Polje’s Euromost NGO has calculated roughly.
How dramatic the situation shows the fact that in relation to the 1991 census, a total of 9,217 inhabitants practically disappeared from the largest municipality Bijelo Polje, 8,807 from Pljevlja and 4,983 from Berane.
That is why in this part of the country, new statistical data are expected with anxiety and fear that they may be colored, figuratively speaking, with three shades of grey.
