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The Serbian population is expected to drop from 7.6 to 6.8 million by 2025, and to 5.9 million by 2050, the US Census Bureau reports.
Goran Penev from the Center of Demographic Research at the Institute of Social Sciences in Serbia told daily Blic that these demographic projections are more or less realistic.
Recent surveys by the Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia on birth and death rates show that, with 15.7 per cent of Serbians over the age of 65, the country has an aging population.
The latest data from the US Census Bureau projects that Serbia will see the fourth highest demographic contraction in Europe.
The Serbian statistical office reports that the number of newborn in the country has been rapidly dropping at the same time that average life expectancy has grown.
Penev said that the average life expectancy in Serbia, which was 73.7 years in 2008, still falls well short of Switzerland where the average life span is 82.2 years.
Blic warns that the data from 2008 gives cause for serious concern since the Serbian death rate is two times higher than the birth rate in 62 of the country's 162 municipalities.
Speking to Blic, sociologist Milovan Mitrovic opined that people with better living standards always want to earn more and that this and the increasing acculturation to Western norms has led to children being viewed as a burden.
http://www.balkaninsight.com/en/arti...r-cent-by-2050
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