Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Box 2. Definition of Rural Areas
A statistical definition of rural settlements in Serbia practically does not exist. Classification of settlements
into urban, rural and mixed was used in the postwar Censuses of 1953, 1961 and 1971 and a criterion for
classification was size of the settlement, and proportion between the agricultural and total population.
Unfortunately, this approach was abandoned in the Censuses of 1981, 1991 and 2002, and the following
classification was applied:
• Urban settlements
• Other settlements
This classification is based on municipal decisions whereas municipalities are in charge of assigning a
status of town to settlements. It is sufficient that a settlement develops a master plan and it can be assigned
a status of a town by a municipal decision. All settlements not assigned the status of town are categorized as
"Other" and are automatically considered rural, but this represents a difficult methodological limitation to
overcome in research.
Bogdanov N. (2006): Small Rural Households in Serbia and Rural Non Farm Economy,
UNDP, Belgrade
Box 3. Definition of Agricultural Households
An agricultural household in the 2002 Census is considered to be any household that at the time of the census
used at least 10 acres of the arable land as well as any household using less than 10 acres of arable land and
possessing at least:
a) 1 cow and calf or 1 cow and beef cattle, or
b) 1 cow and two adult head of small animals, or
c) 5 adult sheep, or
d) 3 adult pig, or
e) 4 adult head of sheep or pig together, or
f) 50 adult poultry, or
g) 20 beehives.
Land ownership refers to the land owned by household members regardless whether it is located within or
outside the place of residence of the household.
Land use represents land area (regardless whether it is cultivated or not at the time of the Census) consisting
of land owned by the household member and land leased (on lease, share lease, or free-of-charge use), but
excluding the land given to others to be used.
Republic Statistical Office: Census 2002
The high poverty rate of rural areas in Serbia
has been caused by low economic development and
continued insufficient diversification of the rural
economy. The economic structure in rural areas in
Serbia relies on the primary sector and is (still)
based on use of natural resources. The main
characteristics of the economic structure of rural
areas in Serbia are the high share of agriculture,
food-processing industry, mining and energy, and a
low level of tertiary sector. Privatization and closing
down of companies has caused a reduction in
demand for less-qualified labour (usually
recruited from the rural population) and hampered
the already underdeveloped rural labour market.
The slowed down process of privatization of
agricultural companies and conglomerates (due to
unclear land ownership relations) has caused a
reduction in investors' interests to invest into rural
areas. Poor utility and business infrastructure as
well as low human and entrepreneurial potential are
the main barriers to rural development.
In circumstances of poor development of other
industries, agriculture has an important place in the
rural social and economic structure, which is borne
out by the following parameters:
136 Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007