Kosovo's population has shrunk by 12% in 13 years, the results of a census showed on Thursday, with the country having lost nearly 200,000 inhabitants since the last survey.
Kosovo's population fell from nearly 1.8 million people to just over 1.6 million, said the Kosovo Statistical Agency (KSA) in a statement.
Ethnic Albanians comprise roughly 90% of the population, while ethnic Serbs account for just over 3%, said the KSA.
Census officials said their final figure relied on estimates for the total number of ethnic Serbs.
Many in the community had boycotted the census, especially in municipalities near the northern border with Serbia, said KSA chief Avni Kastrati.
The boycott came following calls by Serb political parties to do so. The agency estimated the overall Serb population at around 53,000, more than double the number the initial 2011 census found.
Kosovo's average age is just shy of 35, the second youngest in Europe. The average age in the 2011 census was nearly 30.
The census registered 93.49% of the population as Muslim, 2.31% as Orthodox and 1.75% as Catholic.
The census results "make up the basis to draft policies on the citizens' real needs," said Prime Minister Albin Kurti.
Kosovo has had to contend with a massive outflow of people seeking work abroad.
According to official estimates, over 800,000 Kosovars live and work in EU member states, about half of whom reside in Germany.
The diaspora has long served as a financial lifeline in Kosovo by sending hundreds of millions of euros in remittances to their families annually.
Census counts are delicate matters in many Balkan countries, where plunging birth rates, mass migration and ethnic tensions undercut efforts to provide accurate population figures.
The animosity between ethnic Albanian-majority Kosovo and Serbia has persisted since the end of the war between Serbian forces and ethnic Albanian insurgents in the late 1990s.
The census showed that the 1998-1999 war resulted in 11,417 dead and 1,047 missing. Material damage was estimated at 5 billion euros ($5.2 billion).
Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, a move that Belgrade has refused to acknowledge.
Kosovo-Serbia relations remain tense despite efforts by the international community to normalize them.
