A total of 39,107 Croats live in Serbia, 18,793 fewer than in 2011, according to the results of the 2022 census published by the State Statistical Office, the Vojvodina weekly "Hrvatska Riječ" reported on Saturday.

“The number published by the Institute is an objective fact and will affect our position in Serbia,” the Democratic Union of Croats in Vojvodina (DSHV) said.

The majority of Croats in Serbia still live in Vojvodina, but the number of members of this community has clearly decreased, “Hrvatska Riječ” reports.

According to the population census from 2011, 47,033 declared themselves Croats in Vojvodina, while according to the most recent census there were 32,684, or 14,349 fewer Croat inhabitants.

According to the 2011 census, most Croats lived in certain towns in Vojvodina, such as Subotica, Sombor, Novi Sad, Apatin, Srijemska Mitrovica, Šid, Ruma etc.

According to the analysis of the Croatian weekly, in each of these cities and municipalities the number of Croats decreased significantly, so in 2022 in Subotica 10,431 inhabitants declared themselves Croats, and in 2011 there were 14,151, in Sombor 5,029 and in the previous census 7,070.

In Novi Sad, 3,877 citizens of that city are of Croatian origin, and eleven years ago there were 5,335, in Apatin the number fell from 3,015 to 2,057, and in Srijemska Mitrovica from 2,112 to 1,341.

There were 1,748 Croats in Šid and now there are 1,249, and in Ruma the number dropped from 1,719 to 1,133.

In all other cities and municipalities in Vojvodina, the number of Croats fell below 1,000.

In the capital of Serbia, Belgrade, there were 7,752 inhabitants in 2011 who declared themselves Croats, and in 2022 the number is 4,554.

In the first reaction to the results of the census, the DSHV assessed that such data were “the result of a long period full of challenges in the society in Serbia, which changes almost every day”.

“It is most likely that the situation has recurred that a certain number of citizens of unquestionable Croatian origin declared differently, even non-national”, announced the DSHV, stating that the reduction in the number will affect the position of Croats because certain legal solutions in the area of ​​protection of minority rights are related to the number of certain minorities.

The answer to this challenge, as stated, will be the strengthening of the DSHV in order to continue active political activity, the continuation of support for the representative body of Croats, the Croatian National Council, and strategic cooperation with the bodies of the mother country of Croatia.

“DSHV does not accept defeatism, aware that we are a generation of many opportunities. In an environment that is becoming more and more favorable for Croats in Serbia, we want to take advantage of them,” concludes their press release.

The results of the 2022 population census in Serbia show that a significant drop in the number of members also occurred in other minority communities.

The number of Hungarians between the two censuses fell from 253,889 to 184,442, Slovaks from 52,750 to 41,730, Ruthenians from 14,246 to 11,483, and the number of Bunjevci (non-Croats) between the two censuses fell from 16,706 to 11,104.

There was also a decline in the total number of the population in Serbia. According to the final results, it has 6,647,003 inhabitants, and in 2011 there were 7,186,862.