The other Bosnia

UN DESA, 2024

Where people born in Bosnia live

People born in Bosnia and Herzegovina and living in another country, by country, as the UN estimates them from each country’s own census and registers. It counts birthplace, not citizenship or descent, so children born abroad are not in it, and nor is anyone the destination country does not record by birthplace.

The figure for 1990, under each bar, is not a count of emigrants either. Bosnia was a republic of Yugoslavia then, and the UN counts everyone born in it who lived in another republic as abroad: that is why Serbia and Croatia start so high. Since then Germany has grown the most, from 32,000 to 320,423.

One large country is missing from the UN’s list: the United States reports its migrants to the UN by region, not by country, so its Bosnians are not in the UN’s total. The US Census Bureau counts them itself, and the list below adds its figure in its place, marked; the section on America has the rest.

Source: UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024, by destination and origin; United States: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey

Same countries, different questions

Each source counts someone else

The same countries in four sources. Born in BiH (the UN, and Eurostat where the country reports birthplace) catches people who took a new citizenship; citizens of BiH (Eurostat) misses them. Germany reports citizens to Eurostat but not birthplace, and Croatia reports neither, so the UN is the only count of the largest group of all. Permits count arrivals since the census, not people. Serbia is outside the EU, so only the UN sees it.

Eurostat figures are for 1 January 2025 unless a year is given · — not published

Source: UN DESA, International Migrant Stock 2024; Eurostat migr_pop3ctb, migr_pop1ctz, migr_resfirst

US Census Bureau, American Community Survey

The Bosnians of America

The US Census Bureau asks a sample of households every year where each member was born. In 2024 it estimated 108,665 people born in Bosnia and Herzegovina living in the United States, give or take 8,657. Set beside the UN’s figures, that puts the US sixth, after Croatia, Germany, Serbia, Austria and Slovenia.

The estimate was 125,793 in 2010, has stayed between 100,000 and 123,000 since, and most of the changes from year to year are smaller than the survey’s own margin, drawn as the faint band on each column. It counts people born in Bosnia only, so their children born in America are not in it.

1. 126k’10
2. 123k’11
3. 122k’12
4. 112k’13
5. 111k’14
6. 108k’15
7. 102k’16
8. 102k’17
9. 106k’18
10. 105k’19
11. 114k’21
12. 100k’22
13. 104k’23
14. 109k’24

One-year estimates · no 2020 estimate was published

Where they live, from the five-year estimates for 2020–2024, the only ones precise enough for states and cities. Chicago and St. Louis hold the most; Des Moines and Utica, in upstate New York, stand out for their size.

Source: US Census Bureau, American Community Survey, table B05006 (one-year estimates, and five-year 2020–2024); margins of error at 90%

Eurostat, first residence permits

Leaving since the census

Every year, the EU countries report how many first residence permits they gave to Bosnian citizens, and why. The number more than tripled between the census and 2019, when it reached 56,946, and work became the main reason: 54% of permits since 2013 were for work. Germany, Slovenia and Croatia gave the most. The EU totals leave out Switzerland, Serbia, the UK and everywhere overseas.

1. 16k’13
2. 19k’14
3. 20k’15
4. 26k’16
5. 36k’17
6. 54k’18
7. 57k’19
8. 40k’20
9. 42k’21
10. 50k’22
11. 48k’23
12. 39k’24
13. 35k’25

for work family, study and other

Source: Eurostat, first residence permits (migr_resfirst)

Municipality by municipality

Which places the diaspora comes from

The only figures that tie the diaspora to a place at home. In 2022, 69,966 citizens registered to vote by post or at an embassy, each for the municipality they lived in before they left; the election commission publishes the count per municipality only as a scanned table, read here by OCR and checked against its stated total. The census adds the households that named a member living abroad. Both are small against the UN’s figure: most people abroad neither register to vote nor have a household left at home to answer for them.

Against the adults at home, voters abroad are most numerous in Srebrenica and Bratunac, in Ključ and Sanski Most, and in Jajce, Kotor Varoš and Gornji Vakuf-Uskoplje. Households with family abroad are most common in the north-west around Cazin, the south-west around Livno and Tomislavgrad, and Posavina.

Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, census 2013 final results and Central Election Commission of BiH, voters registered to vote outside BiH (decision of 25 August 2022)

Census 2013, Book 8

The residents who had lived abroad

The census also asked everyone at home whether they had ever lived outside the country for a year or more. 755,800 had, 21% of residents: the people who came back, and people born elsewhere who moved in. The reason they gave for coming is mostly family; 109,955 said they came for compelling reasons, a census phrase that covers refugees, most of them back from Germany and Croatia. In Odžak, Kupres, Sanski Most and Ključ, more than three residents in five had lived abroad.

Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, census 2013 final results · Book 8, table 9.1

Part 08 turns to the other list that reaches across the border: the voter roll at home, which can keep people who have left.