Demographic features of the population of Serbia include vital statistics, ethnicity, religious affiliations, education level, health of the populace, and other aspects of the population.

Quick Facts Serbia, Population ...

Demographics of Serbia
Serbia population pyramid in 2020
Population	6,647,003[1]
Growth rate	−10.9 per 1,000 inhabitants (2021)[2]
Birth rate	9.1 per 1,000 pop. (2021)[2]
Death rate	20.0 per 1,000 pop. (2021)[2]
Life expectancy	72.7 years (2021)[2]
• male	73.1 years [3]
• female	78.4 years[3]
Fertility rate	1.63 children born/woman (2022)[2]
Infant mortality rate	4.8 deaths/1,000 infants (2019)[2]
Net migration rate	–0.9 migrant(s)/1,000 pop. (2022)
Age structure
0–14 years	14.3% (2021)[2]
15–64 years	64.4% (2021)[2]
65 and over	21.3% (2021)[2]
Sex ratio
At birth	1.06 male(s)/female
Under 15	1.06 male(s)/female
15–64 years	1.00 male(s)/female
65 and over	0.75 male(s)/female
Nationality
Nationality	noun: Serbian(s) adjective: Serbian
Major ethnic	Serbs (80.6%) / (86.6%)
Minor ethnic	Hungarians (2.8%) / (3.0%) Bosniaks (2.31%) / (2.5%) Roma (2%) / (2.1%) other minorities around 5.3% / (5.8%) undeclared and unknown 6.9%
Language
Official	Serbian at national level; Hungarian, Bosnian, Croatian, Slovak, Albanian, Romanian, Montenegrin and Rusyn are in official use in Vojvodina. Minority languages are used in municipalities which harbor minorities.
Spoken	Serbian (84.36%) Hungarian (2.5%) Bosnian (2.1%) Romani (1.2%) other minority languages less than 1%

Close

Censuses in Serbia ordinarily take place every 10 years, organized by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia. The Principality of Serbia had conducted the first population census in 1834; the subsequent censuses were conducted in 1841, 1843, 1846, 1850, 1854, 1859, 1863 and 1866 and 1874. During the era Kingdom of Serbia, six censuses were conducted in 1884, 1890, 1895, 1900, 1905 and the last one being in 1910. During the Kingdom of Yugoslavia, censuses were conducted in 1931 and 1921; the census in 1941 was never conducted due to the outbreak of World War II. Socialist Yugoslavia conducted censuses in 1948, 1953, 1961, 1971, 1981, and 1991. The two most recent censuses were held in 2011 and 2022.

The years since the first 1834 Census saw frequent border changes of Serbia, first amidst the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire and Austria-Hungary, then subsequent formation and later disintegration of Yugoslavia and, finally, 2008 partially recognized independence of Kosovo which affected territorial scope in which all these censuses have been conducted.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Graphs are unavailable due to technical issues. There is more info on Phabricator and on MediaWiki.org.

Source: Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia^{[5][6][7][8][9]} Data for Serbia excluding Kosovo.

Current vital statistics

^[20][21]

More information Period, Live births ...

Period	Live births	Deaths	Natural increase
January - February 2023	10,083	18,037	-7,954
January - February 2024	10,088	19,012	-8,924
Difference	+5 (+0.1%)	+975 (+5.4%)	-970

Close

Data for Serbia excluding Kosovo.

Situated in the middle of the Balkans, Serbia is home to many different ethnic groups. According to the 2022 census, Serbs are the largest ethnic group in the country and constitute 80.6% of population (86.6% if categories not declared and unknown nationalities are excluded). Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority in Serbia, concentrated predominately in northern Vojvodina and representing 2.8% of the country's population (3% if categories not declared and unknown nationalities are excluded). Bosniaks are second largest ethnic minority mainly inhabiting Sandžak region in southwestern and most southern part of the country representing 2.3% of the country's population (2.5% if categories not declared and unknown nationalities are excluded). Romani people constitute 2% of the total population, or 2.1% if undeclared and unknown are not taken into account. Other minority groups include Albanians (0.9%), Slovaks and Croats (0.6%), Yugoslavs (0.4%), Romanians, Vlachs and Montenegrins (0.3%). The Chinese^[23][24] and Arabs are the only two significant immigrant minorities,^{[citation needed]} with the former often using Serbia as a transient country on their way to Western Europe.^[23] In 2022, 140 thousand migrants arrived in Serbia from Russia, and the country's authorities announced their intention to grant them citizenship in an expedited manner.^[25]

Serbia is largely a homogeneous Eastern Orthodox nation, with Catholic and Muslim minorities, among other smaller confessions.^[30]

Orthodox Christians number 5,387,426 or 81.1% of country's population. The Serbian Orthodox Church is the largest and traditional church of the country, adherents of which are overwhelmingly Serbs. Other Orthodox Christian communities in Serbia include Montenegrins, Macedonians Romanians and Bulgarians.

There are 257,269 Roman Catholics in Serbia, roughly 3.9% of the population, mostly in Vojvodina (especially its northern part) which is home to minority ethnic groups such as Hungarians, Croats, Bunjevci, Albanians, as well as to some Slovaks and Czechs.^[31] Protestantism accounts for about 1% of the country's population, chiefly among Slovaks in Vojvodina as well as among Reformist Hungarians.

Muslims, with 278,212 or 4.2% of population, form second largest religious group. Islam has a strong historic following in the southern regions of Serbia, primarily in southern Raška. Bosniaks are the largest Islamic community in Serbia; estimates are that some third of country's Roma people are Muslim.

The official language is Serbian, member of the South Slavic group of languages, and is native to 5,607,558 or 84.4% of the population.^[32] Recognized minority languages are: Hungarian (mother tongue to 170,875 people or 2.6% of population), Slovak, Romanian, Bulgarian, and Rusyn as well as Bosnian and Croatian which, like Serbian, are standardized varieties of the Serbo-Croatian pluricentric language. All these languages are in official use in municipalities or cities where more than a 15% of population consists of national minority.^[33] In Vojvodina, provincial administration uses, besides Serbian, five other languages (Hungarian, Slovak, Romanian, Croatian, and Rusyn).

Data that follows has been derived from the Ministry of Demography and Population Policy of Serbia Official website^[36]

Median age of the population

Total: 43.16 years (2018)

Male: 41.73 years

Female: 44.53 years

Mother's mean age at first birth

28.4 years (2018)

Number of marriages per 1000 inhabitants

5.2 marriages/1,000 population (2018)

Median age of the groom at the time of marriage

34.2 years (2018)

Median age of the bride at the time of marriage

31.1 years (2018)

Number of divorces per 1000 marriages

275.2 divorces/1,000 marriages (2018)

According to 2011 census, literacy in Serbia stands at 98% of population while computer literacy is at 49% (complete computer literacy is at 34.2%).^[37] Same census showed the following levels of education: 16.2% of inhabitants have higher education (10.6% have bachelors or master's degrees, 5.6% have an associate degree), 49% have a secondary education, 20.7% have an elementary education, and 13.7% have not completed elementary education.^[38]

The life expectancy in Serbia at birth is 74.8 years, 71.9 for males and 77.7 for females.^[39] Serbia has a comparatively old overall population (among the 10 oldest in the world), with the average age of 42.9 years.^[40]

More information Period, Life expectancy in Years ...

Period	Life expectancy in Years[41]
1950–1955	59.12
1955–1960	61.60
1960–1965	64.26
1965–1970	66.72
1970–1975	68.53
1975–1980	69.53
1980–1985	70.20
1985–1990	71.14
1990–1995	71.74
1995–2000	71.91
2000–2005	72.36
2005–2010	73.33
2010–2015	74.65

Close

• Demographic history of Serbia
• Demographic history of Vojvodina
• Demographic history of Kosovo
• Yugoslavia § Demographics
  • Demographics of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia
  • Demographics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
• Demographics of Serbia and Montenegro