| The
geographic position at the crossroads between the East and the West rendered Montenegro to
be the scene of tumultuous historic events over centuries, and the place where various
peoples and religions encountered, parallel existed and merged. Specific cultural and
historic heritages and intermingling, as well as the characteristics of the territory on
which they crossed, resulted in the formation of the multiethnic, multicultural and multi
religious community in Montenegro. The population of Montenegro in 1998
was 650,575.
Population
(estimate on the basis of the 1981 and 1991 censuses and natural migration) |
| Total: |
650 575 |
| Montenegrins: |
380466 (61,9 %) |
| Serbs: |
57454 (9,3 %) |
| Muslims: |
89615 (14,6 %) |
| Albanians: |
40415 (6,6 %) |
| Others: |
(7,6 %) |
By religion |
| Orthodox Christian : |
425,132 (69.1%) |
| Islamic: |
118,016 (19.1%) |
| Catholic: |
27,153 (4.4%) |
| Others: |
44,734 (7.4%) |
| By sex (in 1998) |
| Male: |
323300 (49,7 %) |
| Female: |
327200 (50,3 %) |
| Births in 1998 : |
9250 |
| Deaths in 1998: |
5470 |
| Population growth in 1998: |
3780 |
| Population density : |
44, 5 |
| Persons per household: |
3, 80 |
The official language in Montenegro is Serbian. It belongs to the
South-Slavic family of languages.
The standard Montenegrin idiom is based on ijekavian neoshtokavian
dialect. In Montenegro, two dialects are in use differing from each other in stress and
declension.
Further, two alphabets are equally used - Cyrillic and Latin.
Montenegrin alphabet is phonemic: each sound is represented by a single letter. But in
addition to 30 phonemes comprising the standard Montenegrin Serbian spoken language with
the corresponding number of letters in the written language, several more phonemes can be
heard.
In the areas where the Albanian minority makes the majority of population, the use of
their native language is guaranteed by the Constitution. |
