Urban Settlements in the Republic of Serbia in Population Censuses from 1948 to 2002

In population censuses from 1948 to 2002, two criteria for differentiation of settlements, namely division of settlements into urban and those that are not (mixed and villages, namely other) were used by statistical office. One being the administrative criteria, by which the settlements are declared urban by legal regulations (census 1948 and censuses from 1981), and the other a combined (demographically-statistically) criteria based on the combination of the two characteristics: population size of the settlement and percentage portion of non-agricultural population, used in population censuses from 1953 to 1971. Proceeding from the adopted criteria, a total number of 243 independent settlements had the status of urban settlements in Serbia, which is a considerably greater number of total numbers of urban settlements in any population census. This practically means that certain settlements, from censuses to censuses, gained and lost such a status. The loss of the status is exclusively a characteristic of the period when the demographic-statistical criteria were applied for separating urban settlements in the population censuses from 1953 to 1971, namely the transfer from these criteria to the administrative-legal criteria in the population census of 1981. The number of urban settlements as well as the changes in the number and systematic list of urban settlements, not only within the Republic, but in certain macro entities (for Kosovo and Metohia up to 1991), are shown in table and schematic forms according to successive population censuses, starting from the 1948 census.