Original scientific paper
Population Growth in the Vukovar-Srijem Region from 1857 to 1991
Dražen ŽIVIĆ
Abstract
This paper deals with the changes in population trends of the
Vukovar-Srijem region from the year 1857 to 1991. The
analysis indicates that the basic determinants of population
growth in that region, within the period of one century and a
half, were migrational processes, whether it was a matter of
immigration, emigration, or internal spatial redistribution of
inhabitants. Hence, especially important for population
dynamics were the First and Second World Wars, i. e. the
subsequent agrarian colonization, the economic immigration
of the work force in the 1950s and 1960s, migration to the
leading macroregional centres of Croatia (Osijek, Zagreb), i.
e. emigration to foreign countries from the 1970s as well as migration from rural to urban areas. In the population trends
of the Vukovar-Srijem region we can discern five periods of
fundamentally different population dynamics: 1) between
1857 and 1910 (a growth of 49. 5%), 2) between 1910 and
1931 (a growth of 7. 4%); 3) between 1931 and 1948 (a
growth of 9. 4%); 4) between 1948 and 1971 (a growth of
44. 2%); 5) between 1971 and 1991 (a growth of 6. 5%).
Population trends in the Vukovar-Srijem region in the past
two decades have indicated a stagnation of sorts and a
decrease in numbers. The future development of the
population in this region will for the greatest part be
determined by the unfavourable consequences (direct
demographic losses, material destruction, ethnic cleansing)
of the Great-Serbian aggression and years of occupation of
most of its territory (1991-1998).
Keywords
Hrčak ID:
20404
URI
Publication date:
31.12.1998.
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