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Bosnia and Herzegovina counted · Part 08 of 09

Voters and residents

Two lists claim to say who lives in each municipality. The census counts residents who are there. The voter roll lists every adult citizen registered at an address there, wherever they are.

The answer

The 2013 census counted 2,838,458 residents aged 18 or over. Nine years later, the in-country voter roll for the 2022 elections had 3,278,376 names, 439,918 more (15%), and that is before the voters registered abroad. The roll is longer than the census’s adults in 113 of 142 units, and half as long again in 4.
2,838,458
adult residents, census 2013
3,278,376
voters on the in-country roll, 2022
69,966
more registered to vote from abroad, 2022

Residents and voters

Why the lists differ

The voter roll is drawn from the register of residence. Anyone who moves abroad and does not deregister stays on it, at their last address, and votes there if they come home for the day or vote by post. The census, after the residence rules of Part 00, kept only people who live in the country. People who were displaced in the war may also vote in the municipality they lived in in 1991, wherever they live now.

The two lists are nine years apart, and the population fell in between (Part 05), so the gap is if anything wider than the 2013 adults suggest. The figures here are the in-country roll only: in 2022 another 69,966 voters were registered abroad, by post or at an embassy, and Part 07 maps them.

Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, census 2013 final results and Central Election Commission of BiH, voters per municipality, general elections 2022

Voters per 100 adult residents

Where the roll outruns the residents

Voters on the in-country roll for every 100 residents aged 18 or over in 2013. The roll runs furthest ahead of the census in Velika Kladuša and Bihać in the north-west, across the north from Derventa and Brod to Teslić and Kotor Varoš, and in several Sarajevo municipalities. It runs behind in Tomislavgrad and Kupres in the south-west, which have some of the highest shares of households with family abroad (Part 07): the two lists measure different things. The 2026 roll is the one published with the preliminary count.

Voters on the 2022 roll per 100 adults counted in 2013. Point at a municipality.

Under 7575–9595–105105–125Over 125

Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, census 2013 final results and Central Election Commission of BiH

Units with 2,000 adults or more

Furthest apart, both ways

Voters per 100 adults, 2022 roll. Where the roll is shorter than the census, some residents are registered to vote somewhere else. The three lowest, Ravno, Donji Žabar and Novo Goražde, are small municipalities made when the inter-entity line split a pre-war one.

Most voters per 100 adults

  1. 1Oštra Luka1874,189 / 2,246
  2. 2Velika Kladuša14643,861 / 30,036
  3. 3Derventa14232,214 / 22,620
  4. 4Teslić13943,037 / 30,911
  5. 5Doboj Jug1354,270 / 3,152
  6. 6Ilijaš13420,691 / 15,421
  7. 7Prnjavor13439,207 / 29,303
  8. 8Kotor Varoš13320,854 / 15,658
  9. 9Brod13117,933 / 13,653
  10. 10Vogošća13127,172 / 20,815

Fewest voters per 100 adults

  1. 1Ravno531,428 / 2,695
  2. 2Donji Žabar561,725 / 3,093
  3. 3Novo Goražde591,595 / 2,715
  4. 4Osmaci743,628 / 4,889
  5. 5Tomislavgrad7719,315 / 24,942
  6. 6Milići867,990 / 9,304
  7. 7Stolac8810,149 / 11,594
  8. 8Kupres893,654 / 4,123
  9. 9Lopare9011,583 / 12,888
  10. 10Posušje9414,499 / 15,406

Source: Agency for Statistics of BiH, census 2013 final results and Central Election Commission of BiH