ЖАБАЉСКИ ПРОТОПОПИЈАТ У БАЧКОЈ ЕПАРХИЈИ: Демографске промене у XVIII и XIX веку
THE PROTOPRESBYTERATE OF ŽABALJ IN THE BAČKA EPARCHY: Demographics in the 18th and 19th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: The Serbian Orthodox Presbytery of Žabalj and the Titel (Šajkaš) battalion of the Military Frontier covered the same territory since 1769/70 until the dissolution of the battalion in 1873, when it was reorganized into two districts without changing area. Identical space of both Church and State administrative units make it possible to combine statistical sources of different origin – Church, State and Military. Censuses of the Serbian Orthodox Metropolitanate of Karlovci for the Bačka Eparchy (which included the Protopresbyterate) of 1785, 1797, 1804, 1811, 1820, 1840, 1843/44, 1865 and 1896 were used to analyze the demographics of the Orthodox population which was predominantly Serbian. Orthodox Serbs made the vast majority of the whole population in the area from the end of the 18th until the second half of the 19th century. Immigration of Catholics and Protestants, mainly Hungarians and Germans, changed the ethnic structure and the share of Orthodox believers decreased from 94,12% in 1857 to 67,86% in 1900. Natural population growth of the Orthodox was fluctuating but stabilized in the second half of the 19th century causing the population to grow significantly, but not fast enough to keep up with the immigration numbers of other religious groups. The Sex Ratio of the Orthodox population was always in favour of men due to possible high mortality rates of women. The average Serbian Orthodox household had more than seven members at the end of the 18th and almost ten in the first half of the 19th century as a consequence of military rules. The decrease in household size began in the 1850s, probably because of more liberal policies on farm and land partition. In 1896, the average household had only five members, which was possible only due to extreme progress in house construction.

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