Demographic history of Subotica

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Demographic history of Subotica

Contents

[edit] From Middle Ages to the 19th century

Before the Ottoman conquest in the 16th century, the population of the city was mostly Hungarian, while during the Ottoman rule (16th-17th centuries) was mostly Serbian. Between the end of the 17th century and the second half of the 19th century, the population of Subotica was mostly composed of ethnic Bunjevci.

According to Bunjevački kalendar for 1868, ethnic composition of Subotica in this year looked like this:

[edit] From second half of the 19th century to the end of World War I

At the end of the 19th century, and the first decades of the 20th century, the census results show that speakers of the Hungarian language were more numerous than the speakers of the Bunjevac language. However, it is not certain whether Hungarians or Bunjevci were majority in the city at this time. Censuses performed in the Kingdom of Hungary during this time are considered partially inaccurate by many historians because these censuses did not record the population by ethnic origin or mother tongue, but by the "most frequently spoken language", thus the census results overstated the number of Hungarian speakers, since this was official language at the time and many non-Hungarian native speakers stated that they most frequently speak Hungarian language in everyday communication. The Magyarization (Hungarization) policy of the Hungarian government also played a role, since numerous Bunjevci were Magyarized, that is, replaced their native South Slavic language with Hungarian.

Linguistic composition of Subotica according to 1890 data:

According to the official census of 1910, Subotica's linguistic composition looked as follows: The 94,610 inhabitants were further divided by most common language used:

[edit] Between two wars

Censuses performed in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia between the two world wars indicate that the majority in Subotica at this time were Bunjevci. According to the Yugoslav historians, this further undermine the validity of the results from previous censuses performed in the Kingdom of Hungary, and suggest that even during that time the majority of the city population were Bunjevci, who declared that they most frequently speak Hungarian language in everyday communication. According to the Hungarian historians, the 1931 census may be more accurate than those performed immediately after the creation of Yugoslavia (1919, 1921), which show exceptionally low figures for Hungarians at a time when the new Yugoslav authorities had political reasons to minimise the Hungarian population share.

Ethnic composition of Subotica according to 1919 census data:

Linguistic composition of Subotica according to 1921 census data:

Linguistic composition of Subotica according to 1931 census data:

[edit] World War II and post-war period

The Hungarian census from 1941 (whose validity is rejected by many historians), show that 59.9% of the city population spoke Hungarian language, i.e. the number of Hungarian speakers increased for about 20,000 (from 41,401 (or 41.4%) in 1931 to 61,581 (or 59.9%) in 1941). The subsequent censuses performed in the SFR Yugoslavia recorded the ethnicity of the citizens, and according to the 1953 census ethnic Hungarians numbered 32,194 or 50.6% of population of Subotica. In this time, ethnic Bunjevci were not allowed to express their ethnicity, and citizens who declared themselves in census as Bunjevci were counted as "Croats". Next censuses also recorded that Hungarians are largest ethnic group in the city, but their participation dropped: 48.5% in 1971, 43.8% in 1981, 39.6% in 1991, and 35.0% in 2002.

[edit] Trivia

It is interesting to note that according to 1850 data, Subotica had a population of 48,126 people. Before the First World War this number almost reached 100,000. When Subotica became part of the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1920, Subotica was the third-largest city of the newly-formed country, after Belgrade and Zagreb. It has since been overtaken by many cities in the region.

Since the 2002 Romanian census Subotica has become the largest city outside Hungary in which Hungarians are the largest ethnic group, although they are not absolute, but only relative majority with participation of 34.99%, while 55.94% of the city population are various South Slavic ethnic groups, which speak Serbian or Croatian language.

[edit] Historical population of the city in different time periods

Date Population
1850 48,126
1869 57,556
1880 62,556
1890 74,250
1900 82,835
1910 93,232
1921 90,961
1931 100,058
1948 63,079
1953 66,091
1961 75,036
1971 88,813
1981 100,516
1991 100,386
2002 99,981

[edit] See also

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