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full screen A man cycles past a mural in Serbia’s capital Belgrade with the text “Kosovo” painted on top of the colors of the Serbian flag. Archive image. Photo: Darko Vojinovic/AP/TT
Kosovo begins the country’s first census in over ten years.
According to the statistics agency, the country’s ethnic Serbs are expected to participate, but the relationship between them and the Kosovo government is very tense.
The census in Kosovo begins on Friday and is expected to last six weeks. So far, neither Kosovo Serb leaders nor the government of Serbia have announced whether the 100,000 or so Serbs in Kosovo will participate in the census.
Relations between the government and Kosovo’s ethnic Serbs deteriorated sharply at the beginning of the year when the Serbian currency was banned and the euro became the only valid currency in the country.
The Kosovo Bureau of Statistics has previously conducted a census, in 2011, which was boycotted by the Serbs.
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Serbia has not recognized. Instead, Serbia has continued to fund a parallel health, education and social security system for Serbs in Kosovo.
In addition to determining the population, the census will interview residents about their households, education, employment, about injuries they sustained during the 1998–1999 war, and whether they have relatives who died or were tortured during that time.