POPULATION DEVELOPMENT of SLOVENIA from the BEGINNING of COUNTING to the PRESENT DAY Damir Josipovi~
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POPULATION DEVELOPMENT OF SLOVENIA FROM THE BEGINNING OF COUNTING TO THE PRESENT DAY Damir Josipovi~ According to its numbers, the Slovene population belongs ethnically and nationally among the small- er populations of European countries. However, it is distinguished by its historic endurance and continuity in Slovenia and in neighbouring areas since the 6th century. The existence of the Slovene people as an ethnic group that survived in spite of strong assimilation pressures and which managed to preserve the Slovene language as the main distinguishing component of ethnicity largely throughout its rural hinterland provided the foundation for the formation of modern Slovenia. Throughout its history from its initial colonization in the 6th century, Slovene ethnic territory shrank constantly. In the first few cen- turies after colonization, the settling area of our Slovene ancestors encompassed the majority of the territory of today's Austria, more than a third of Hungary and Croatia, and eastern border areas of today's Italy. Relative to the size of today's Slovenia, this ethnic territory shrank most in the north and east, and least in the west. As an independent country, Slovenia is the millennium-long dream of the Slovene people come true, but a considerable area populated by speakers of autochthonous Slovene dialects still remains outside the state borders. Thus today, Slovenia has autochthonous minorities in all four neighbouring countries. In the time since the first estimates of the population on the territory of today's Slovenia in the mid- dle of the 18th century and the first censuses a good century later, the Slovene population has not increased as other European populations then comparable with the Slovene population have. In the 19th centu- Figure 1: Manual farm work has almost disappeared (photography Marjan Garbajs). 81 Damir Josipovi~ ofSlovenia Development Population 82 Table 1: Number and gender of the population of Slovenia and changes in the number after the population censuses in the period between 1857 and 2002. 1857 1869 1880 1890 1900 1910 1921 1931 1948 1953 1961 1971 1981 1991 2002 TOTAL 1.101.854 1.128.768 1.182.223 1.234.056 1.268.055 1.321.098 1.304.800 1.397.650 1.439.800 1.504.427 1.591.523 1.727.137 1.891.864 1.913.355 1.964.036 Men (m) 535.945 545.614 576.964 601.031 618.065 643.898 622.168 673.248 675.353 712.034 760.770 835.998 918.766 923643 958.576 Women (w) 565.909 583.154 605.259 633.025 649.990 677.200 682.632 724.402 764.447 792.393 830.753 891.139 973.098 989712 1.005.460 Absolute Difference 0 26.914 53.455 51.833 33.999 53.043 –16.298 92.850 42.150 64.627 87.096 135.614 164.727 21.491 50.681 Absolute Diff. (m) 0 9.669 31.350 24.067 17.034 25.833 –21.730 51.080 2.105 36.681 48.736 75.228 82.768 4.877 34.933 Absolute Diff. (w) 0 17.245 22.105 27.766 16.965 27.210 5.432 41.770 40.045 27.946 38.360 60.386 81.959 16.614 15.748 Index 100 102.4 107.3 112.0 115.1 119.9 118.4 126.8 130.7 136.5 144.4 156.7 171.7 173.6 178.2 Chain Index 100 102.4 104.7 104.4 102.8 104.2 98.8 107.1 103.0 104.5 105.8 108.5 109.5 101.1 102.6 Index (m) 100 101.8 107.7 112.1 115.3 120.1 116.1 125.6 126.0 132.9 141.9 156.0 171.4 172.3 178.9 from the beginning of Counting to the Present Day thePresent thebeginning to ofCounting from Chain Index (m) 100 101.8 105.7 104.2 102.8 104.2 96.6 108.2 100.3 105.4 106.8 109.9 109.9 100.5 103.8 Index (w) 100 103.0 107.0 111.9 114.9 119.7 120.6 128.0 135.1 140.0 146.8 157.5 172.0 174.9 177.7 Chain Index (w) 100 103.0 103.8 104.6 102.7 104.2 100.8 106.1 105.5 103.7 104.8 107.3 109.2 101.7 101.6 Source: [ifrer 1963; SURS; our own calculations; Census data refers to the current territory of Slovenia. Calculations for the current territory for censuses between 1857 and 1910 are summarized from @. [ifrer – Stanovni{tvo 3/1963). Slovenia: a Geographical Overview ry, the Slovene population ranked among the medium-sized populations of the European space and in numbers was roughly comparable with the neighbouring Croatian and Serbian populations, if we limit ourselves to just the populations in our immediate vicinity. However, the Serbian population in particular experienced a rapid expansion during the 20th century, and today the Serbian population is about five times larger than the Slovene population, while the Croatian population is twice its size. The reasons for the very low increase in the Slovene population are numerous, the most important being emigration of a large part of active population mostly to overseas countries and the simultaneous start of a decline in the birth rate. One of the basic factors of this development is certainly the lack of a Slovene nation-state. Thus in comparison with other ethnic populations, demographic transition did not bring comparable population surpluses. The same is true of all populations who have been without their own state for a long time. Among the classic nation-states in Europe today, only the Estonian population is smaller than the Slovene population. The reason for this lies in the political power of the country, which could acquire speakers through its official language policy at the expense of languages whose status was not officially recognized. A comparison of census data shows that the number of inhabitants on the current territory of Slovenia has not even doubled since the first census and that growth was not steady in the periods between cen- suses. The period between 1857 and 1910 was marked by a quite constant but weak growth in the number of the population. This growth would have been considerably higher had the population not started to emigrate intensively in the second half of the 19th century, mostly due to agrarian overpopulation and the general socio-economic crisis. The extent of emigration has been so large that along with the Irish and the Croats, Slovenes rank to the very top of European emigration. Between 1910 and 1921, the number of the population even regressed, which can be attributed to large war losses and the addi- tional emigration mostly from the western part of Slovenia (Primorska) that was granted to Italy as spoils of war after World War I. Between 1921 and 1948, the Slovene population did record growth, 2.000.000 1.800.000 1.600.000 1.400.000 1.200.000 1.000.000 800.000 600.000 400.000 200.000 0 1857 1869 1880 1890 1900 1910 1921 1931 1948 1953 1961 1971 1981 1991 2002 TOTAL Men Women Figure 2: Number and gender of the population of Slovenia according to censuses between 1857 and 2002 (Source: Ibid.). 83 Damir Josipovi~ ofSlovenia Development Population 84 Murska Sobota Gornja Radgona [ ~a Ledava vn Mura Radlje ob Dravi ica Dravograd Lenart Drava v Slovenskih goricah Lendava Ravne na Koro{kem Ru{e P e s n Slovenj Gradec i Ljutomer MARIBOR c a Kranjska Gora Me`a ^rna na Koro{kem Jesenice Ptuj Ormo` Bled Tr`i~ Slovenska Bistrica Bovec Mozirje Velenje Sav Radovljica in Slovenske Konjice avinja ja Dr Bohinjska Bistrica @alec Celje Roga{ka Slatina So~a Kamnik a [entjur @elezniki Kranj j n Tolmin i v [kofja Loka Trbovlje a Sora Dom`ale S La{ko Cerkno Sava Hrastnik Idrijca Zagorje ob Savi Sava from the beginning of Counting to the Present Day thePresent thebeginning to ofCounting from @iri Litija Idrija LJUBLJANA Sevnica Sotla Ljubljanica Mi na Nova Gorica Vrhnika Grosuplje r Kr{ko Bre`ice Logatec Trebnje Vipava Ajdov{~ina Population growth index 2002/1991 Krka 120 and more (722) Cerknica Novo mesto 110 to 119,9 (759) Postojna Pivka Ribnica 100 to 109,9 (1434) Se`ana 90 to 99,9 (1505) Reka Metlika 80 to 89,9 (828) A D R I A T I C Ko~evje less than 80 (750) S E A ^rnomelj Ilirska Bistrica Koper 01020304050 km Piran Izola Dragonja Kolpa Scale: 1 : 1,300,000 Author: Damir Josipovi~ © Geografski in{titut Antona Melika ZRC SAZU, 2004 Slovenia: a Geographical Overview p Figure 3: Change in the population by settlements in Slovenia between 1991 and 2002 (Source: our own calculations, SURS). but this was reduced because of the continuation of emigration and losses as a consequence of World War II. After World War II with the post-war baby boom, emigration continued into the 1950's, but after that period Slovenia became an immigration area as a result of rapid industrialization. Emigration to foreign countries dropped markedly while the influx of the population from other parts of the for- mer Yugoslavia increased. Because the natural increase still ensured a relative surplus, the number of the population increased considerably with positive migration balance, especially in the period between 1971 and 1981. The data for the census years 1991 and 2002 is not quite comparable with pre- vious data because of a different definition of the population, which is now the same in Slovenia as it is in the majority of European Union countries.