North Macedonia risks shrinking to around 1.2 million residents by 2050, academician Taki Fiti warns

Taki Fiti, an academician, has raised the alarm that the population of North Macedonia could fall to just around 1.2 million residents by 2050 as a result of low birth rates, demographic ageing and emigration.

In an interview with “Triling,” Fiti recalled that at the beginning of the 1990s, the country had approximately 2.06 million residents, while today it has around 1.8 million. Projections indicate that by 2050, this figure could drop to 1.2 million.

One of the main factors is the low birth rate, which stands at around 1.44 children per woman, a figure far below the 2.1 needed to ensure population replacement.

Fiti also pointed out that the number of people over 65 already exceeds the number of children under 15, placing pressure on pensions, healthcare and the labor market.

According to him, the country is also facing labor shortages, as well as a lack of technical and professional personnel, while there is a surplus in some social fields.

Fiti stressed that more than 700,000 citizens live abroad, representing more than one-third of the population. He assessed that North Macedonia is finding it difficult to compensate for this loss solely through the import of labor, as many foreign workers view the country as a transit point toward Western Europe.

Speaking about European integration, Fiti said that the demand to include Bulgarians in the Constitution is likely to remain a condition and that, in his view, the country should fulfill it, but he called for guarantees that bilateral issues will not be brought back into the negotiating process. /Inbox7/