SARAJEVO: Bosnia’s first census since the 1992-1995 inter-ethnic war kicked off on Tuesday, amid intense campaigns by political and religious leaders urging people to declare their ethnicity.
The results could affect the balance of power in the Balkan country, where civil service jobs are allocated in proportion to the size of each ethnic group, based on a pre-war 1991
census.
“For the first time in 22 years we will get a complete image of Bosnia-Hercegovina’s population,” head of the country’s statistics bureau Zdenko Milinovic told AFP.
“We will get demographic, economic and social data as well as indicators of migration.”
Respondents do not have to declare their ethnicity, but Muslim, Serb and Croat leaders have strongly encouraged their communities to do so, making the census highly political.
Bosnia was the most ethnically diverse republic of the former Yugoslavia, which collapsed in a series of 1990s wars.
Bosnia’s first post-war census kicks off
Bosnia’s first post-war census kicks off
