In Bosnia, a small, ethnically fractured nation that endured a bitter war from 1992 to 1995, the population has declined long after peace returned.
Bosnia combines the high rate of emigration common to poorer countries with the low birthrate more frequently seen in wealthier nations. The country’s shrinking population is part of a broader demographic crisis afflicting many places in Eastern and Central Europe, including relatively prosperous countries like Poland and Hungary, as withering populations fuel ethnonationalist politicians who inveigh against the dilution, even extinction, of native groups.
