DEMOGRAPHIC CHARACTERISTICS OF RURAL POPULATIONS IN VOJVODINA AS A FACTOR OF RURAL ECONOMY DIVERSIFICATION

It has long been clear that rural economy involves not only agriculture, but all human, social, natural and material resources in rural areas. Human resources are of particular importance since limitations in human capital may limit the use of other resources and could be (and often they are) a ‘bottleneck’ of rural development. Serbia is characterised by the long-lasting lack of a viable and high-quality labour force in rural areas. That makes the inclusion of the rural population in the wider labour market difficult and limits their access to other markets (knowledge, information, and financial capital). This, consequently, leads to further impoverishment of the rural population, making poverty both a cause and a consequence. Starting from the above mentioned importance of human resources in this paper, the main demographic characteristics of the rural population in the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina have been analysed and discussed as an important factor of rural economy diversification. The analysis conducted has shown that: i) the rural population in Vojvodina decreases (faster than the urban) ii) the ageing index in rural areas has increased more slowly in rural than in urban areas, but it is still higher iii) the level of education of the rural population is lower than that of the urban population. These findings point out that the demographic characteristics of the rural population might be a serious constraint on rural economy diversification and rural development in Vojvodina. Decision makers must be aware of this and adjust development policies to the existing conditions.