Southeast Europe is emptying out. 🇷🇸Serbia, 🇧🇦Bosnia, 🇭🇷Croatia, 🇧🇬Bulgaria, 🇷🇴Romania bleeding population for 25 years straight. The countryside is vanishing. What’s left is capitals and coastlines.
Southeast Europe is emptying out. 🇷🇸Serbia, 🇧🇦Bosnia, 🇭🇷Croatia, 🇧🇬Bulgaria, 🇷🇴Romania bleeding population for 25 years straight. The countryside is vanishing. What’s left is capitals and coastlines.
The people in west that cheer for large scale migration always completely ignore how drastically negative it has impact on the countries of origin.
Taking immigrants is not charitable or admirable work, it is stealing other countries future and perspective, leaving the most vulnerable behind.
Pochel on
I’ve always wondered what perspective a country has after losing so many inhabitants. Probably not good ones
Nal1999 on
My family comes from an Aitolian village in Greece.
Up until the 90s the population was 2000 people. Today it is less than 700, possibly even 200 people.
Prize-Leopard-8946 on
They are all here in Germany now.
I know a guy from Romania who once told me that if he wants to meet people from the village he grew up in, he has to travel to Munich nowadays.
Weekly_Working1987 on
Real cost of corruption and missing infrastructure.
Retiring in a remote village in Austria, dream come true, doing it so in a balkan village horrendous, no gas, plumbing, doctors and so on.
emorac on
Saying they sank into corruption is rough oversimplification.
They’re self-balancing for sustainable population levels to stabilise feudalism created by unfreformed communists.
Independent-Slide-79 on
Could be a massive chance for nature
divaro98 on
That’s sad. Those a great nations. I really hope the EU can bring back more prosperity and a future for those nations.
I experienced it when we drove in Central Croatia.
AdAcrobatic4255 on
Why is the Brcko district the only region that experienced population growth in Bosnia?
MammothTrifle3616 on
But Thracian Turkey is very green, they could easily settle the Balkans again. Will they? Should they?
quercus-88 on
We Europeans really need to get our birthrate up, from catastrophic to at least only bad. Our current trajectory is one of demographic, economic and cultural suicide and geopolitical irrelevance. And while fertility rates are dropping across the world, many of these countries and regions still have the benefit of demographic dividend for a few more decades due to large recent birth cohorts. Ours however is all but gone.
(Before anyone asks. I’m a millenial and i have young children myself.)
MMortein on
Rejuvenation therapies will fix this problem before the end of this century.
toshu on
That’s misleading. Since 2020 or so many Balkan people have been returning from the West, plus many Balkan countries are becoming attractive for foreign immigrants as their economies have been improved markedly. Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria are in this pool for sure.
Bulgaria, popularly dubbed the “fastest-shrinking country in the world”, has had consistently [positive net migration](https://www.pragueprocess.eu/en/countries/840-bulgaria?tmpl=component&ml=1) since 2020, plus the highest birth rates in Europe. As of 2025 Bulgaria may well actually be *growing* in population for the first time since the 1980s.
Yes, this population is mostly settling in the capitals and bigger cities, which largely coincide with the green spots on the map. But that’s an urbanization trend more than a bleeding population trend.
Vindaloo6363 on
People move to cities seeking wealth. They move back to the country seeking happiness. It will stabilize eventually.
AffectionateGap5258 on
Most of the balkan rural areas are a terrible place to live so personally i dont think its a bad think people are leaving. Population decline is not bad by itself its just systems build around it like pensions and immigration that make it a problem
No_Bar6551 on
less people means better life
AdWonderful3621 on
One common problem is – Corruption
znv142 on
Actually Bulgaria just experienced net positive migration with many Bulgarians returning from abroad. I’m one of them! : )
danieljamesgillen on
The population goes down, the demand for housing goes down, the supply of available houses goes up. But the prices of housing somehow still go unaffordably up. The curse of the Balkans.
Responsible_Stop_823 on
World’s capital for corruption and nepotism
Puzzleheaded-Bat6344 on
How much of that is just urbanization? The US has vast areas that were emptied even in strong population growth years
darkvaris on
Like every rural area in every region of the world.
Oddisredit on
What is crazy is that if you had Amish like the orthodox old believers who have high birth rates and high retention rates there, they would basically inherit the entire area
lost_horizons on
Is it like in the American Midwest where people leave and it’s all becoming corporate mega farms but no one lives there? Or are they just abandoning the land and it’s returning to nature?
bruki9834 on
Politics and corruption forced a lot of people from villages to big cities to avoid starvation. This led to an increase in workers for businesses. This led to an increase in greed from business owners and treating their workforce like expendable goods. The rich kept getting richer, inflation hiked up the prices, and common people were barely keeping ends met.
Most of us from the Balkans have a relative outside that lives a semi-normal life. One thing led to another, and young guys and girls left in search of a better life. Those who stayed kept hearing how it is better in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc. Suddenly, young people with families and without started leaving their birthplace in search of a better life.
You either leave to go work abroad, stay and move to the capitals and big towns, or stay in the village that is dying out. Also don’t forget, rising costs of living and lack of affordable housing aren’t a great way to ensure people get married and have children.
NuclearDisaster5 on
Normal situation when you enter EU.
sarpol on
What a fabulous map. This is why I subscribe to this sub.
I see it was taken from MilosPopovic.net. A few of his other maps are also on the front page
_biafra_2 on
Ottomans genociding again 🙁
MANEWMA on
Sounds like Rural America… same issue the globe over..
29 Comments
The people in west that cheer for large scale migration always completely ignore how drastically negative it has impact on the countries of origin.
Taking immigrants is not charitable or admirable work, it is stealing other countries future and perspective, leaving the most vulnerable behind.
I’ve always wondered what perspective a country has after losing so many inhabitants. Probably not good ones
My family comes from an Aitolian village in Greece.
Up until the 90s the population was 2000 people. Today it is less than 700, possibly even 200 people.
They are all here in Germany now.
I know a guy from Romania who once told me that if he wants to meet people from the village he grew up in, he has to travel to Munich nowadays.
Real cost of corruption and missing infrastructure.
Retiring in a remote village in Austria, dream come true, doing it so in a balkan village horrendous, no gas, plumbing, doctors and so on.
Saying they sank into corruption is rough oversimplification.
They’re self-balancing for sustainable population levels to stabilise feudalism created by unfreformed communists.
Could be a massive chance for nature
That’s sad. Those a great nations. I really hope the EU can bring back more prosperity and a future for those nations.
I experienced it when we drove in Central Croatia.
Why is the Brcko district the only region that experienced population growth in Bosnia?
But Thracian Turkey is very green, they could easily settle the Balkans again. Will they? Should they?
We Europeans really need to get our birthrate up, from catastrophic to at least only bad. Our current trajectory is one of demographic, economic and cultural suicide and geopolitical irrelevance. And while fertility rates are dropping across the world, many of these countries and regions still have the benefit of demographic dividend for a few more decades due to large recent birth cohorts. Ours however is all but gone.
https://www.mckinsey.com/mgi/our-research/dependency-and-depopulation-confronting-the-consequences-of-a-new-demographic-reality
(Before anyone asks. I’m a millenial and i have young children myself.)
Rejuvenation therapies will fix this problem before the end of this century.
That’s misleading. Since 2020 or so many Balkan people have been returning from the West, plus many Balkan countries are becoming attractive for foreign immigrants as their economies have been improved markedly. Croatia, Romania and Bulgaria are in this pool for sure.
Bulgaria, popularly dubbed the “fastest-shrinking country in the world”, has had consistently [positive net migration](https://www.pragueprocess.eu/en/countries/840-bulgaria?tmpl=component&ml=1) since 2020, plus the highest birth rates in Europe. As of 2025 Bulgaria may well actually be *growing* in population for the first time since the 1980s.
Yes, this population is mostly settling in the capitals and bigger cities, which largely coincide with the green spots on the map. But that’s an urbanization trend more than a bleeding population trend.
People move to cities seeking wealth. They move back to the country seeking happiness. It will stabilize eventually.
Most of the balkan rural areas are a terrible place to live so personally i dont think its a bad think people are leaving. Population decline is not bad by itself its just systems build around it like pensions and immigration that make it a problem
less people means better life
One common problem is – Corruption
Actually Bulgaria just experienced net positive migration with many Bulgarians returning from abroad. I’m one of them! : )
The population goes down, the demand for housing goes down, the supply of available houses goes up. But the prices of housing somehow still go unaffordably up. The curse of the Balkans.
World’s capital for corruption and nepotism
How much of that is just urbanization? The US has vast areas that were emptied even in strong population growth years
Like every rural area in every region of the world.
What is crazy is that if you had Amish like the orthodox old believers who have high birth rates and high retention rates there, they would basically inherit the entire area
Is it like in the American Midwest where people leave and it’s all becoming corporate mega farms but no one lives there? Or are they just abandoning the land and it’s returning to nature?
Politics and corruption forced a lot of people from villages to big cities to avoid starvation. This led to an increase in workers for businesses. This led to an increase in greed from business owners and treating their workforce like expendable goods. The rich kept getting richer, inflation hiked up the prices, and common people were barely keeping ends met.
Most of us from the Balkans have a relative outside that lives a semi-normal life. One thing led to another, and young guys and girls left in search of a better life. Those who stayed kept hearing how it is better in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, etc. Suddenly, young people with families and without started leaving their birthplace in search of a better life.
You either leave to go work abroad, stay and move to the capitals and big towns, or stay in the village that is dying out. Also don’t forget, rising costs of living and lack of affordable housing aren’t a great way to ensure people get married and have children.
Normal situation when you enter EU.
What a fabulous map. This is why I subscribe to this sub.
I see it was taken from MilosPopovic.net. A few of his other maps are also on the front page
Ottomans genociding again 🙁
Sounds like Rural America… same issue the globe over..