Original scientific paper
https://doi.org/10.5559/di.23.3.03
Tripartite Nation – Bosniaks, Muslims, and Croats-Muslims in Croatia in the 2001 and 2011 Censuses
Nenad Pokos
orcid.org/0000-0001-7800-7489
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Zlatko Hasanbegović
; Institute of Social Sciences Ivo Pilar, Zagreb
Abstract
Already the first census after World War II in Croatia
revealed the statistical phenomenon of national schism which
applies to different declarations of nationality of Muslims of
the same ethnicity (Croats-Muslims / undeclared Muslims).
This phenomenon could not be observed in the period of
former Yugoslavia because, at the time, the religious
structure of the population was not part of the census. The
problem reoccurred in the 2001 and 2011 censuses after
Croatia had become independent, when three terms were
used: Bosniaks, Muslims, Croats-Muslims. The article
explains the census and national political background of this
phenomenon, and on the basis of both published and
unpublished sources analyses the demographic
characteristics of each of the three groups in the population
of generally the same ethnic origin, but differently declared
ethnicity. Comparative analysis of changes in the declaration
of nationality and the demographic characteristics between
the two censuses in 2001 and 2011 indicates the gradual
transformation of the "tripartite" (Bosniaks / Muslims /
Croats-Muslims) into a dual national declaration (Bosniaks /
Croats-Muslims), whose perspectives and demographic
characteristics depend on census methodology,
integration/assimilation processes in the society and the
future demographic, migratory and political situation in
Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, which is hard to
predict.
Keywords
Muslims; Bosniaks; Croats-Muslims; nationality declaration; census
Hrčak ID:
130052
URI
Publication date:
30.10.2014.
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