Zapošljavanje u inozemstvu i prirodna depopulacija seoskih naselja
Employment Abroad and the Natural Depopulation of Rural Settlements

Summary/Abstract: The work deals with the total and natural population trends in urban and rural settlements from the year 1961 to 2001. A particular feature of this research is a comparative analysis of the total and natural permanent population trend and the population in Croatia ("in the country") at the level of settlements. Based on assessments and censuses as well as vital-statistical data, a relatively high influence has been reported of employment abroad in the 1960s on the growth of depopulation processes in rural settlements in the 1970s. Comparative analysis of the natural permanent population trend (the sum of inhabitants in Croatia and registered persons temporarily working and living abroad with their family members) and the population in Croatia at the level of urban and rural settlements, has determined the extent to which the "fictitious" natural growth realised abroad has compensated or overcompensated for the natural decline occurring as the result of natural growth in Croatia. With regard to the 1970s, the research demonstrates that the emigration wave of the 1990s had greater impact on accelerating depopulation processes in urban settlements. By means of employment abroad in the 1960s, external factors quickened the pace of deagrarisation and deruralisation, considerably more than could have been done by the domestic economy. This phenomenon has had a strong impact on the process of decreasing the number and diminishing the role of the rural population and the population economically active in agriculture.

• Details
• Contents