Statistics in Serbia

From 1804 and the liberation from the foreign rule, Serbia tried to build a state of the European type. These efforts are indicated by the creation of numerous institutions which include statistics, too. Statistics offers testimonies about states and societies, representing them to the domestic and world public. It does so by collecting data about the territory and population, economy and culture of a country. The collected data are processed and published. Thus the politicians, scientists, businessmen and broad public acquire insights useful for the implementation of their activities and for a better understanding of the environment in which they work. Even before The First Serbian Uprising there were state institutions in the territory of the then Serbia. For the needs of that administration certain counts were made. But it was the work of foreign empires. Only the statistics created for the needs of Serbia’s own Principality, later Kingdom belongs to the history of Serbian statehood. That is why the national uprising begun in 1804 marks its justified historical start, and World War II was a logical moment for the end of this review. Understanding the development of the statistic service requires at least two types of information. First, it is useful to bear in mind those factors of social development which imposed the need for statistics in Serbia. The second set of remarks is related to the fact that Serbia at the time took the example of the statistical services in the more developed part of the world. Remarks about the stimuli from these two sources given in this text are only a reminder of the obligation to carry out still unfinished essential studies of the past. There were statistic reaserches in Serbia even before the foundation of the statistics service. Everything done in this area before 1862 belongs to the pioneering attempts, to the preparatory period, to prehistory. However, precisely these first endeavours clearly reveal governmental reasons for which statistics was created. That is why the statistics endeavours even before the establishment of the state statistics service also deserve attention.