- Demographics of Banja Luka
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Contents
Current population
The population of the municipality of Banja Luka in 1991. was 196,500. Today, the City of Banja Luka has a population of about 227,000 people.[1] Along with the metro area (municipalities of BL, Laktasi and Celinac), Banja Luka has population of about 270,000.[1] Although there is a lack of official statistics on ethnic distribution, there is little doubt that Serbs make up an overwhelming majority in the city.
Banja Luka municipality 2006 - 198,000:
1991
According to the 1991. census, the municipality of Banja Luka had a population of 195,692, including:
- 106,826 (54.58%) Serbs
- 29,026 (14.83%) Croats
- 28,558 (14.59%) Bosnian Muslims
- 23,656 (12.08%) Yugoslavs
- 7,626 (3.92%) others and unknown
1981
According to the 1981. census, the municipality of Banja Luka had a population of 183,618, including:
- 93,389 (50,86%) Serbs
- 30,442 (16,57%) Croats
- 21,726 (11,83%) Bosnian Muslims
- 31,347 (17,07%) Yugoslavs
- 6,714 (3,65%) others and unknown
1971
According to the 1971. census, the municipality of Banja Luka had a population of 158,736, including:
- 92,465 (58,25%) Serbs
- 33,371 (21,02%) Croats
- 24,268 (15,28%) Bosnian Muslims
- 4,684 (2,95%) Yugoslavs
- 3,948 (2,48%) others and unknown
Settlements (over 1,500 residents), 1991. census
total: 143,079
- 70,155 (49.03%) Serbs
- 27,689 (19.35%) Bosnian Muslims
- 15,700 (10.97%) Croats
- 22,645 (15.82%) Yugoslavs
- 6,890 (4.81%) others and unknown
- Ivanjska
total: 4,577
- 3,306 (72.23%) Croats
- 1,095 (23.92%) Serbs
- 6 (0.13%) Bosnian Muslims
- 118 (2.57%) Yugoslavs
- 52 (1.13%) others and unknown
- Piskavica
total: 3,798
- 3,729 (98.18%) Serbs
- 15 (0.39%) Croats
- 1 (0.02%) Bosnian Muslims
- 27 (0.71%) Yugoslavs
- 26 (0.68%) others and unknown
- Rekavice
total: 2,679
- 2,487 (92.83%) Serbs
- 128 (4.77%) Croats
- 1 (0.03%) Bosnian Muslims
- 49 (1.82%) Yugoslavs
- 14 (0.52%) others and unknown
total: 2,578
- 1,890 (73.31%) Croats
- 478 (18.54%) Serbs
- 21 (0.81%) Bosnian Muslims
- 141 (5.46%) Yugoslavs
- 48 (1.86%) others and unknown
- Kola
total: 2,241
total: 2,009
- 944 (46.98%) Croats
- 941 (46.83%) Serbs
- 10 (0.49%) Bosnian Muslims
- 80 (3.98%) Yugoslavs
- 34 (1.69%) others and unknown
- Krupa na Vrbasu
total: 1,858
- 1,826 - 98.27% Serbs
- 7 - 0.37% Croats
- 1 - 0.05% Bosnian Muslims
- 14 - 0.75% Yugoslavs
- 10 - 0.53% others and unknown
- Bistrica
total: 1,703
- 1,651 - 96.94% Serbs
- 6 - 0.35% Bosnian Muslims
- 3 - 0.17% Croats
- 32 - 1.87% Yugoslavs
- 11 - 0.64% others and unknown
- Bočac
total: 1,685
- 1,670 - 99.10% Serbs
- 1 - 0.05% Croats
- 1 - 0.05% Bosnian Muslims
- 3 - 0.17% Yugoslavs
- 10 - 0.59% others and unknown
- Pavlovac
total: 1,522
- 1,377 - 90.47% Serbs
- 26 - 1.70% Croats
- 7 - 0.45% Bosnian Muslims
- 39 - 2.56% Yugoslavs
- 73 - 4.79% others and unknown
- Šimići
total: 1,516
Historical population
See also: Historical population of Banja Luka
Ethnic composition of Banja Luka municipality in 1981.
Serbs
Croats
No clear majority (Serbs, Croats, Muslims, Yugoslavs)
Uninhabited or no dataAt the first census, conducted by Austro-Hungarian authorities in 1879, Banja Luka had the following religious (ethnic) composition:
Banja Luka municipality - 86,209 citizens, Orthodox 74.46%, Muslims 14.33%, Catholics 10.52%
Banja Luka city - 13,566 citizens, Muslims 67.71%, 19.8% Orthodox.
As the city was industrialized and wider urbanization of the surrounding areas took place, Orthodox Serbs that typically inhabited surrounding rural areas (due to Ottoman feudal system) were incorporated into the city's urban structure. Bosnian Muslims claim that their drop of percentage in the city's population was partly influenced by the Agrarian Reform of 1918, which ordered major landowners to transfer land to those who tilled it, who in this region were mostly Orthodox Serbs. The Agrarian Reform was introduced as means to dismantle the old Bosnian feudal system. Bosnian Muslims claim that the reform was abused to change the ethnic makeup of the region in the long term. Bosnian Serbs claim that Agrarian Reform was introduced to return the land stolen from the native Orthodox and Catholic people by the Ottoman Empire. Because the city was in the center of the Bosnian Krajina region, with a predominant Orthodox Serb majority, the Serb population of Banja Luka has steadily increasing.
Banja Luka is the seat of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Banja Luka and home to the Cathedral of St. Bonaventure.
During World War II most of Banja Luka's prominent Serbian and Sephardic Jewish families were deported to nearby Croatian concentration camps, such as Jasenovac and Stara Gradiska in Croatia. Today, Banja Luka's Jewish community is virtually non-existent. A spike in Serbian immigration was mostly noted after the earthquake of 1969, when the city has seen a boom in housing construction.
In 1991 the city of Banja Luka was still an ethnically mixed city (with a relative Serb majority), while on the municipal level there was an evident Serb majority of 54.6%.
References
- Official results from the book: Ethnic composition of Bosnia-Herzegovina population, by municipalities and settlements, 1991. census, Zavod za statistiku Bosne i Hercegovine - Bilten no.234, Sarajevo 1991.
Categories:- Banja Luka
- Bosnia and Herzegovina people
- Ethnic groups in Bosnia and Herzegovina
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