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1455: Turkish cadastral tax census (defter)9 of the Brankovic dynasty lands (covering 80% of present-day Kosovo and Metohija) recorded 480 villages, 13,693 adult males, 12,985 dwellings, 14,087 household heads (480 widows and 13,607 adult males). By ethnicity:
The Great Turkish War of 1683-1699 between the Ottomans and the Habsburgs led to the flight of a substantial part of Kosovo's Serbian population to Austrian held Vojvodina and the Military Frontier. Following this an influx of Muslim Albanian19 from the highlands (Malesi) occurred, mostly into Metohija. The process continued in 18th century19.
19th century data about the population of Kosovo tend to be rather conflicting, giving sometimes numerical superiority to the Serbs and sometimes to the Albanians. Many historians regard Ottoman statistics as being unreliable, as the empire counted its citizens by religion rather than nationality, using birth records rather than surveys of individuals.
A study in 1838 by an Austrian physician, dr. Joseph Müller found Metohija to be mostly Slavic (Serbian) in character. 10 Müller gives data for the three counties (Bezirk) of Prizren, Pec and Djakovica which roughly covered Metohija, the portion adjacent to Albania and most affected by Albanian settlers. Out of 195,000 inhabitants in Metohija, Müller found:
Müller's observations on towns:
Another study done in 1871 by Austrian colonel Peter Kukulj for the internal use of the Austro-Hungarian army showed that the mutesarifluk of Prizren (corresponding largely to present-day Kosovo and Metohija) had some 500,000 inhabitants, of which:
Other 19th century ethnographers and travellers such as French G. Lejean12 Germans J. Hahn12 and H. Kiepert12, Austrian K. Sax12, Englishmen G. M. Mackenzie and A.P. Irby12,13 have identified the teritorry as predominantly Albanian. According to these, Serbs formed the majority of the population only of the regions of Mitrovica and Kosovo Polje, whereas western and eastern parts of today's province were dominated by Muslim Albanians. Maps by above-mentioned ethnographers, as well as other maps of the Balkans may be found at 1 (http://albanian.com/information/history/ethnicma/) and 2 (http://www.aeronautics.ru/archive/macedonia/maps/page_hist.htm).
It is estimated that some 400,00018 Serbs were cleansed out of the Vilayet of Kosovo between 1876 and 1912, especially during the Greek-Turkish war of 1897.
In the 20th century, German scholar Gustav Weigand gave the following statistical data about the population of Kosovo in Ethnography of Macedonia (1924, written 1919), based on the pre-war situation in Kosovo in 1912:
Metohija with the town of Djakovica is furthermore defined as almost exclusively Albanian by Weigand.
British journalist H. Brailsford in his book Macedonia, Its Races and Their Future (1905) estimated that two-thirds of the population of Kosovo was Albanian and one-third Serbian. The most populous western districts of Djakovica and Pec were said to have between 20,000 and 25,000 Albanian households, as against some 5,000 Serbian ones.
Retaking of Kosovo by Serbia in 1912 resulting in suppression of the local Albanian population and ethnic cleansning of some regions15.
Most of the teritorry of today's province is occupied by Italian-occupied Greater Albania, massacres of some 10,000 Serbs, ethnic cleansing of about 100,0001 and settling of 70,000 of Albanians from Albania.
After the province gained autonomy, local provincial Statistical office given authority over census whereas the rest of the country's census was under the tutelage of the Federal Statistical Commission. Allegations of census rigging (for the 1971 and 1981) by Turk, Muslim and Roma minorities who claim forceful Albanization. Serb claims Albanians drastically overincreased their own numbers. Nothing could be substantiated though because the Kosovo Statistical offices were under exclusive Albanian control which was against the national norm at the time which dicated that census takers had to be of different nationalities (i.e. one Albanian and one Serb not both Albanian as was the case in the two following censa).
1971: 1,243,693 total inhabitants5,6
Albanians take ever-increasing control of Autonomous province with the introduction of the 1974 Constitution.
1,584,440 total inhabitants
Yugoslav Central Government reasserts control over Kosovo in 1989.
Official Yugoslav statistical results, almost all Albanians and some Roma, Muslims boyott the census following a call by Ibrahim Rugova to boycott Serbian institutions. 1991 359,346 Total population
Official Yugoslav statistical corrections and projections, with the help of previous census results (1948-1981):
1,956,196 Total population6 (corrected from 359,346)
The corrections should not taken to be fully accurate. The number of Albanians is sometimes regarded as being an underestimate. On the other hand, it is sometimes regarded as an overestimate, being derived from earlier censa which are believed to be overestimates. The Statistical Office of Kosovo states that the quality of the 1991 census is "questionable." [1] (http://www.sok-kosovo.org/pdf/population/Kosovo_population.pdf).
During the Kosovo War in 1999, over 700,000 ethnic Albanians 14 and around 100,000 ethnic Serbs 16 were forced out of the province to neighbouring Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Serbia. After the United Nations took over administration of Kosovo following the war, the vast majority of the Albanian refugees returned.
Many non-Albanians - chiefly Serbs and Roma - fled or were expelled, mostly to the rest of Serbia at the end of the war, with further refugee outflows occurring as the result of sporadic ethnic violence. The number of registered refugees is around 250,0007,11,17. The non-Albanian population in Kosovo is now about half of its pre-war total. The largest concentration of Serbs in the province is in the north, but many remain in Kosovo Serb enclaves surrounded by Albanian-populated areas.
Various, mostly Serbian, sources claim that a large number of Albanians (usually stated as being around 200,000) have moved into Kosovo since 1999, due to the complete liberalization of the Kosovo-Albania border. The veracity of this claim is unclear; the Statistical Office of Kosovo states that "there are at present no reliable statistics on migration in Kosovo."
2000 Living Standard Measurement Survey (Statistical Office of Kosovo). Total population estimated at 1,970,000. 4
The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) estimates the population at 2.0 to 2.2 million people, extrapolating from voter registration data recorded by the UNMIK Department of Local Administration in 2000. [2] (http://www.sok-kosovo.org/pdf/population/Basic%20Demographic%20Data%20for%20Kosovo.pdf)
Some estimates by Albanian demographers estimate a population of 2.4 million Albanians living in Kosovo today. This is regarded by most independent observers as an overestimate as it would imply a total population of some 2.5-2.6 million people in Kosovo, much higher than other estimates.
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