Kosovo authorities have announced the official date for next month's population census (April 5), which will take place at a time of rising tensions with the ethnic Serb community, AFP reported.
Censuses are a sensitive issue in many Balkan countries, where rising birth rates, mass migration and ethnic tensions have undermined efforts to provide accurate population figures, and Kosovo authorities have repeatedly postponed previous censuses.
The Statistics Agency of Kosovo (ASK) said plans are in place to begin the census on April 5, more than a decade after the country's only census of 1.8 million people was conducted in 2011.
"The census provides accurate and complete demographic, socio-economic and geographic data that are essential for informed decision-making at every level," Prime Minister Albin Kurti said.
It comes as relations between the government in Pristina and ethnic Serbs in Kosovo remain strained following the ban on the Serbian dinar currency earlier this year. The move angered Belgrade, which does not recognize Kosovo's independence and continues to fund a parallel health, education and social security system for Serbs there.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic regularly criticizes the government in Pristina for pursuing a number of policies that he says have caused ethnic Serbs to flee Kosovo, leading to a sharp decline in the community's numbers.
Kosovo Serb leaders and the government in Belgrade have not officially announced whether the community of about 100,000 people will participate in the census. /BGNES
