State Statistical Office

A woman walks past campaign billboards for Presidential candidates Milo Djukanovic and Jakov Milatovic in Podgorica, Montenegro. Photo: EPA-EFE/BORIS PEJOVIC

More than 508,000 residents of North Macedonia, more than a quarter of the 1.8 million population, have either not received any formal education, or started but did not finish high school, data on education and literacy from the census conducted last year show.

The official results of the September 2021 national headcount, published on Wednesday, show the country's population has shrunk by 9.2 per cent over two decades since the last census.

The population now stands at 1,836,713, which is 185,834 people less than the number recorded in the previous census conducted in 2002.

The first headcount of citizens in North Macedonia for 20 years has now been completed and closed, with full results not expected until March 2022.

The country's largest statistical operation in two decades lasted 26 days, from 5 until 30 September.

The State Statistical Office has said it is optimistic about successfully wrapping up the nationwide head count, the first since 2002, by the September 30 deadline, having so far registered more than 1.3 million residents in more than 405,000 households.

Despite COVID-19 infections rising, North Macedonian authorities are determined to proceed with the planned start of the national census on Sunday, September 3.

Apostol Simovski, head of the State Statistical Office, said on Friday that everything was now ready for the delayed process to kick off.

After North Macedonia's parliament failed to meet a Wednesday deadline to amend the census law and delay the long-awaited operation due to begin on Thursday, the State Statistical Office - in charge of the headcount - said it will not send census takers out into the field.

The average net salary in Slovenia is already EUR 1 133, an increase of 3.7 percent compared to last year, the National Statistical Office of the country announced.

Salaries in the private sector increased by 3.9%.

There is even bigger growth in the public sector, where in 2019 the salaries were 5.4% higher than in 2018.

The next national headcount should be held in April 2021 instead of April 2020, the State Statistical Office suggested in a statement on Tuesday - again postponing the task of holding a census, which has been delayed for many years.

It said that it will make the suggestion to the Justice Ministry, which should send new census legislation for parliament.

With a sharp rise in foreign investments and significant increase in exports in the first quarter of 2018, the Macedonian economy has shown its first signs of recovery after the prolonged political crisis, which ended in mid-2017, nearly brought progress to a halt.