ABSTRACT
In the 1991 census, boycotted by most Albanians, the official figures showed that the population was split 65 per cent ethnic Macedonian and 21.7 per cent ethnic Albanian.
Likewise, the 21 June-10 July 1994 census was boycotted by most Albanians and to some extent by the Turk and Serb minorities. (All members of ethnic minorities had to complete two forms, one in Macedonian and one in the mother tongue, while all participants had to produce citizenship papers and residence permits.)
Ethnic Albanians claim that they constitute up to 40 per cent of the population. (The largest Albanian party, the Party of Democratic Prosperity, has split. At the congress held on 13 February 1994 the radical wing broke away: EEN, 2 March 1994, vol. 8, no. 5, p. 6.)
The final results of the 1994 census were not released until December. The total population was given as 1,936,877, of which Macedonians accounted for 1,288,330 (66.5 per cent) and Albanians 442,914 (22.9 per cent) (in 1953 the respective proportions were 65.59 per cent and 12.45 per cent). But in fact the number of Albanians is closer to 800,000 (40 per cent plus of the population) (EEN, 1995, vol. 9, no. 10, p. 2).
