Serbia Country Overview
Where is Serbia located? Serbia is a landlocked country in Southeastern Europe. The former constituent state of Yugoslavia is now the legal successor of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Politically, Serbia is now seeking proximity to the European Union. Geographically it’s a part. At least on the time zone map, Serbia is located in a world time zone called Central European Time, which has a time difference of +1 hour to Coordinated Universal Time (UTC). In the summer months, the clock is put forward one hour in Serbia, too, which increases the difference to the world clock by +2 hours.
Population Distribution
As of 2023, the latest population of Serbia is 7,012,165, based on our calculation of the current data from UN (United Nations).
| Total population | 7,012,165 |
| Population growth rate | -0.47% |
| Birth rate | 9.00 births per 1,000 people |
| Life expectancy | |
| Overall life expectancy | 74.79 years |
| Men life expectancy | 71.94 years |
| Women life expectancy | 77.82 years |
| Age structure | |
| 0-14 years | 14.35% |
| 15-64 years | 66.67% |
| 65 years and above | 18.98% |
| Median age | 42.10 years |
| Gender ratio (Male to Female) | 0.95 |
| Population density | 90.51 residents per km² |
| Urbanization | |
| Ethnicities | |
| 83.3% Serbs, 3.5% Hungarians, 2.1% Roma, 2.0% Bosniaks, 5.7% another 21 minorities | |
| Religions | |
| Serbian Orthodox 84.6%, Catholics 5%, Protestants 1%, Atheists 1.1%, Others 0.8%, unknown 4.5% (2011) | |
| Human Development Index (HDI) | 0.799 |
| HDI ranking | 63rd out of 194 |
People in Serbia
83 out of 100 residents of Serbia consider themselves Serbs. In addition to the large group of Serbs, there are also minorities such as the Hungarians with around four out of 100, the Bosniaks with around two out of 100 and even smaller groups such as the Roma, Croats and Albanians.
Quite an old population
Serbia’s population is one of the oldest in the world. The average age is 42.3 years. So there are very many old people and too few young people in the country.
In the 1990s, there were ethnic wars in the country, i.e. clashes in which people fought each other based on their origins. Despite these wars and their losses, Serbia continues to be a multi-ethnic state. So there are many different peoples living in the country.
Serbian society
For a time Serbia belonged to socialist Yugoslavia. Back then there was a very broad middle class, so many people who were neither very rich nor very poor. At that time, the level of education in the country also improved. However, after the dissolution of Yugoslavia a few years later, there was a dictator under whom these structures deteriorated (compare also history and politics).
From then on there were unfortunately more and more poor people and a small proportion of very rich people. At that time, many young people fled abroad. This still affects Serbia today, where many old people now live. Even if the situation is slowly improving, there are still too few well-educated young people in the country. Because they prefer to go to other countries where the job prospects are better.
Languages in Serbia
The official language of Serbia is Serbian, which is actually spoken everywhere in the country. In northern Serbia there are smaller parts of the country where Hungarian, Russian and Croatian are spoken, and in southern Serbia there are those in which Albanian is spoken. Such provinces are rather the exception. Serbian is officially written in Cyrillic script, sometimes in everyday life, but also in Latin, that’s the script you also use.
Religions in Serbia
The vast majority of the people living in Serbia profess the Serbian Orthodox Church, around 84 out of 100. There are also other religious minorities such as Catholics, Protestants and Muslims.
The Orthodox Church united the people in the country, especially during the resistance against the Ottoman Empire.