ABSTRACT
This chapter examines particular aspects of the interrelationship between economic development policy and demography in two socialist countries of South-eastern Europe—Yugoslavia and Bulgaria. It provides an overview of the general characteristics of economic development policy and population change in Yugoslavia and Bulgaria since World War II. The chapter discusses the evolving patterns of population distribution and the regional development policies responsible for these patterns. The reasons for commitment to the evenness concept in regional development in the two countries range from the theoretical to the pragmatic. The pattern of out-migration from Yugoslavia to jobs abroad was to some degree influenced by the regional development policy. The chapter presents a brief summary of the effects of the changing population distributions on other demographic factors within the two nations, such as the natural growth rate and age structure of the two populations.
