By Alimat Aliyeva

In Montenegro, the aging of the population has increased, and the proportion of citizens calling themselves Serbs has increased by more than 4 percent, Azernews reports.

This is stated in the final report of the Statistical Office of Montenegro (Monstat) on the population census conducted in December last year.

According to the report, 623,633 people live in Montenegro, which is 0.6 percent more than according to the 2011 census. 41.12 percent of the population are Montenegrins (256 thousand 463 people), and 32.9 percent are Serbs (205 thousand 370 people). In the previous 2011 census, this ratio was 45 percent and 28.7 percent, respectively. 9.45 percent of the population are Bosniaks (58 thousand 956 people), 4.97 percent are Albanians (30 thousand 978 people), 2.06 percent are Russians (12 thousand 824 people), 1.63 percent are Muslims (10 thousand 162 people). 2.88 percent of them did not want to indicate their ethnicity. Russians have become the fifth largest ethnic group in the country due to increased migration caused by the conflict in Ukraine.

36.2 percent of the population said they speak Montenegrin, while 43.5 percent speak Serbian. By religion, 71.1 percent are Orthodox Christians, 20 percent are Muslims and 3.2 percent are Catholics.

The report indicates that the average age of the country is 39.7 years, which is two and a half years more than in 2011. More than 90.73 percent of the population have Montenegrin citizenship.

The capital Podgorica is the largest city in the country with a population of just over 179,000 people. The next cities were Niksic, Bijelo Polje and Bar. 52.9 percent of the population lives in these four cities.