Living Standards Measurements Study - Serbia 2002 - 2007

Table 4.2. Year of migration by gender and current age (percent)
Total
Gender
Age
Male Female 0 - 14 15 - 29 30 – 44 45 - 59 60 +
Total 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0 100.0
Before 1946 1.9 1.5 2.2 5.8
1946-1970 31.5 31.6 31.4 6.2 28.1 62.7
1971-1990 34.2 33.3 34.7 22.2 45.6 51.4 15.9
1991-1998 15.7 15.5 15.8 23.7 31.8 28.9 11.0 6.9
1999 and later 14.0 15.5 13.0 65.1 43.9 17.2 6.9 5.7
Unknown 2.8 2.7 2.8 11.1 2.1 2.1 2.6 2.9
An extremely high spatial mobility of the
population until the 1980s is an indicator of the
rapid socio economic development of Serbia in that
period. In the interval between 1980 and 1990 there
was a stabilization of internal migratory processes,
and the 1990s were marked by the eruptive
processes of forced migrations involving refugees
and IDPs.
A high proportion of female migration was
conditioned by the changed role of women in
society, the increasing educational level of women
as well as a significant proportion of marriage
migrations. This is supported by the fact that almost
70 percent of women gave “family reason” as the
main reason for moving (Table 3). Employment was
the decisive reason for 12 percent of the women
while for 8 percent of the women with Refugee or
IDP status, migration was not voluntary but due to
the war. The ranking of the reasons for moving is
the same for men but with a much smaller
proportion for family reasons (45 percent) and a
larger one for employment (30 percent).
Table 4.3. Migration by reason for moving and gender (percent)
Total
Gender
Male
Female
Family reasons 59.2 45.0 68.6
Job 19.4 30.2 12.2
Education 6.7 7.6 6.1
Health reasons 0.3 0.3 0.2
War (forced migration) 9.1 10.9 8.0
Other reasons 5.4 6.1 4.9
Total number 7 032 2 721 4 311
4.2. Type of settlement and region
The accelerated economic development of the
country in the first decades after World War Two
directed the labour surplus from the rural to urban
settlements. The volume and intensity of these
migration flows from rural toward urban areas can
be seen through the increase of the urban population
which tripled from 1948 to 2002 (from 18.3 percent
to 56.3 percent). The urban population dominates in
2007 (58.5 percent compared to 41.5 percent other
settlements, Table 4).
Migration in Serbia
51