The 2023 census provided a reliable, complete and realistic picture of the population of Montenegro - there are no "invisible foreigners" or "about 50.000 forgotten people", as the Statistical Office is trying to present through unfounded and inaccurate analyses.
This was announced today by the Statistical Office (Monstat).
They added that for the sake of the public, they are pointing out "the facts regarding this issue and another analysis that attempts to problematize something that is not controversial and which is clear, when the goal is not exclusively manipulation as in this case."
"The Census Law (Articles 3 and 7) is clear - not all persons enumerated are necessarily residents of Montenegro. The population of Montenegro includes persons with their usual place of residence in Montenegro, which is an international standard for defining the residents of a country. Also, foreigners who have been granted permanent or temporary residence in Montenegro and who are listed in the Central Population Register are not necessarily residents of Montenegro. Therefore, the difference in the number of persons in the Central Population Register exists for both citizens of Montenegro and foreign citizens, but not because they have been 'forgotten' but solely due to the application of methodological rules," said Monstat.
The institution stated that it was about removing duplicates, given that the database contained one and the same person who had multiple residence permits in different periods, defining the validity period of residence permits, and defining the length of stay in Montenegro based on residence permits in relation to the reference moment of the census.
"Therefore, the analysis of this database has unequivocally determined that the number of registered foreigners corresponds to the number of foreigners with a residence permit when all methodological rules are applied. The authors of current analyses must be well aware of the differences between the statistical definition of residents and records kept for the purposes of acquiring certain rights, in the specific case of acquiring the right to reside in Montenegro," said Monstat.
They state that it is particularly important that for the first time in Montenegro, the 2023 census data has been matched with data in the registers.
"Unlike all previous censuses, Monstat had the ability to verify the data collected by the census through matching with the Central Population Register. In this regard, the Ministry of Internal Affairs delivered data from the Central Population Register to Monstat, which includes a database of persons who are foreigners with a permanent or temporary residence permit in Montenegro. In support of this, we also provide information that the MEIS, i.e. the education register, was also used to determine the population contingent, where the number of foreign children attending educational institutions in Montenegro was monitored," Monstat said.
The Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) responded to "Vijesti" that Montenegro is currently home to 95.147 foreign citizens, whose number has doubled since the last census in 2023, when there were officially just over 46.000.
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