The director of Monstat, Miroslav Pejović, announced that the conditions have been met for the publication of the preliminary results of the Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in Montenegro, which was started 3. and ended on December 28, 2023, and that other data will be published successively during this year.
He emphasized that these data are subject to change, that is, to revision until the publication of the final results.
The beginning of the census in Montenegro was repeatedly postponed, and a seemingly technical issue was turned into a political one. The census was opposed by Montenegrin civil and left opposition parties, describing it as an attempt at "ethnic engineering".
Two percent more
Assistant Director of the Administration for Statistics Snežana Remiković told RTCG that the number of inhabitants increased by two percent.
The most inhabitants are in Podgorica and Nikšić, Bar and Bijelo Polje, and the least in Šavnik, Plužine and Žabljak.
"In absolute terms, the largest increase in the number of inhabitants is in Podgorica. The growth of the household was slightly higher than the increase in the number of inhabitants, the largest number was also recorded in Podgorica, Nikšić, Bar and Bijelo Polje, and it is important to say that this increase is due to the splitting of family households, so it is to be expected that we have more single-member households," she said. is Remiković.
The assistant director of Monstat stressed that the announced number does not refer to registered persons in the diaspora. The total number of people registered with the diaspora is 673.203.
"That difference may or may not be a diaspora due to the fact that certain cases of duplicates may be determined during the processing, or that persons who are not census units were registered, and all this will be determined by computational and logical control," she said.
More apartments in Tivat, Ulcinj and Budva
She added that the number of apartments increased by 26 percent compared to the previous census. The largest increase in the number of apartments is in Tivat, Ulcinj and Budva.
Remiković also said that there was no change in methodology in the part of the census of apartments and households.
The tender documentation for the software for checking the data collected during the population census process is ready, and the tender will be announced after the adoption of the public procurement plan.
In the coming days, he expects that a new president of the Commission will be proposed.
The director of Monstat, Miroslav Pejović, said that the selection of candidates for operators, who will start entering data on February 1, has been made. Data entry is expected to take up to six months.
No new abuses
When asked by journalists about abuses, Pejović replied that there were no new abuses, and that the materials from every household where a "write-erase" pen was used were handed over to the police.
Monstat said that they collected key data on the population, households, apartments, but also other information related to demographic characteristics, education, the conditions in which citizens live, employment or unemployment, information literacy and other characteristics of the population.