Original scientific paper
Employment Abroad and the Natural Depopulation of Rural Settlements
Anđelko AKRAP
Abstract
The work deals with the total and natural population trends
in urban and rural settlements from the year 1961 to 2001.
A particular feature of this research is a comparative analysis
of the total and natural permanent population trend and the
population in Croatia ("in the country") at the level of
settlements. Based on assessments and censuses as well as
vital-statistical data, a relatively high influence has been
reported of employment abroad in the 1960s on the growth
of depopulation processes in rural settlements in the 1970s.
Comparative analysis of the natural permanent population
trend (the sum of inhabitants in Croatia and registered
persons temporarily working and living abroad with their
family members) and the population in Croatia at the level
of urban and rural settlements, has determined the extent to
which the "fictitious" natural growth realised abroad has
compensated or overcompensated for the natural decline
occurring as the result of natural growth in Croatia. With
regard to the 1970s, the research demonstrates that the
emigration wave of the 1990s had greater impact on
accelerating depopulation processes in urban settlements. By
means of employment abroad in the 1960s, external factors
quickened the pace of deagrarisation and deruralisation,
considerably more than could have been done by the domestic
economy. This phenomenon has had a strong impact on
the process of decreasing the number and diminishing the
role of the rural population and the population economically
active in agriculture. The research accurately shows that a
smaller or larger number of inhabitants registered abroad,
from censuses 1971 to 2001, creates an illusion, but also
confusion about the real tendencies of the total and natural
urban and rural population trends.
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
16233
URI
Publication date:
31.10.2004.
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