Macedonian Muslims - Demographics

Demographics

The exact numbers of Macedonian Muslims are not easy to establish. The historian Ivo Banac estimates that in the old Kingdom of Yugoslavia, before World War II, the Macedonian Muslim population stood at around 27,000. Subsequent censuses have produced dramatically varying figures: 1,591 in 1953, 3,002 in 1961, 1,248 in 1971 and 39,355 in 1981. Commentators have suggested that the latter figure includes many who previously identified themselves as Turks. Meanwhile the Association of Macedonian Muslims has claimed that since World War II more than 70,000 Macedonian Muslims have been assimilated by other Muslim groups, most notably the Albanians (see Albanization). It can be estimated that the Macedonian Muslim population in the Republic of Macedonia between 55,000 and 80,000.