If the emigration of the northern region of Montenegro continues as a negative increase in three to four decades, the region will be shut down," the NGO Euromost announced.
"In the last five years, there have been three times more deaths than live births. Namely, from 2018 to 2023, the number of deaths was higher by 2.798 inhabitants, while that number in the period from 2011 to 2018 (for seven years), was also negative, with 1.117 more deaths than live births, which suggests that the northern region is slowly disappearing.
The natural increase has negatively tripled in the last five years, because young people are mostly leaving, for which reason there are fewer and fewer marriages, and those that were created due to the economic situation, in 80 percent of cases in the north, married couples leave the country with their children, mostly to the states of the European Union, or towards Podgorica and the southern municipalities, and establish a new life there," they say from Euromost.
They remind from the civil sector that according to official data from 2018 to 2023, the number of inhabitants in the northern region decreased by 9.293, and in the last three decades, according to the same data, the number of inhabitants in the municipalities in the north of Montenegro decreased by 60.000.
"These are all official data, and it's even worse when you add those who left Montenegro, started life in another country and have their residence here.
"As can be seen from the data processed by the NGO Euromost for the last five years, the current situation is alarming and that the northern region has already lost when it comes to the number of inhabitants of seven municipalities, such as Andrijevica, Kolašin, Mojkovac, Plužine, Šavnik and Žabljak , which had a total of 62.228 inhabitants according to the 2011 census, which means that, if this trend of population reduction continues, according to our forecasts, four municipalities in the north will not have a single inhabitant, while in the municipalities of Bijelo Polje and Berane, the number be cut in half," it was announced.
Euromost notes that due to emigration and negative growth in the north, the number of students in schools has decreased by 10 in the last 000 years, and they state that the Government's decision to expand the Ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Development and Development of the North is a good one, as well as for demography and youth.
"What is currently a big problem are young people, who in 90 percent of cases immediately leave the northern region. The care for young people was not at a satisfactory level. Previously, the Ministry of Sports and Youth only saw them through some kind of cards, while the others turned off everything they had have had, from workplaces to faculties that existed in the north", they state from Euromost, stressing that the most important thing is for the new government to turn to the north and to the citizens of that region.
That is why, they add, the focus must be placed on young people in the north and conditions must be created for them to stay, to be employed and create marriage unions in the municipalities in this region, to be able to get an education and study in the north of Montenegro, which is the only way to stop negative natural increase and emigration.
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