From Serbian sources
1871: According to Austrian colonel Peter Kukulj in a study done for the internal use of the Austro-Hungarian army: In the mutesarifluk of Prizren there was some 500,000 inhabitants, out of that:
318.000 Serbs (64%),
161.000 Albanians (32%),
10.000 Roma (Gypsies) and Circassians,
2.000 Turks
1929 Serbs: 61% Others 39%. 1
1941 "Essentially unchanged". 1
World War II: displacement of Serbs;
Post World War II
1948: 498,242 Albanians or 65%
1953: 524,559 Albanians or 65%
1961: 646,604 Albanians or 67%. 1
In 1968 under Albanian rule in the province, the local provincial statistical office is given authority over the census whereas in the rest of the country the census was under the tutelage of the Federal Statistical Commission. Allegations of census rigging (for the 1971 and 1981) census are made by Serbs and especially Turks, Muslims and Roma minorities who claimed that the Albanians forcefully declared them as Albanians. Serbs also claim that Albanians drastically overincreased their own numbers.
1971: 916,168 Albanians or 74%. 1
Albanians take ever-increasing control of Autonomous province with the introduction of the 1974 Constitution.
1981: 1,226,736 Albanians 77%; Serbs 13%; Total 1,584,440. 2
Newly strong Yugoslav Central Government reasserts control over Kosovo in 1989.
Official Yugoslav statistical results, most Albanians boycotted the census. 1991 359,346 Total population - 214,555 Orthodox Serbs (194,190 Serbians and 20,365 Montenegrins) - 9,091 Albanians (most boycotted) - 57,758 (Slavic) Muslims - 44,307 Roma - 10,445 Turks - 8,062 Croats (Janjevci) - 3,457 Yugoslavs
Official Yugoslav statistical corrections, with the help of previous census results (1948-1981)
1,956,196 Total population (corrected from 359,346) - 214,555 Orthodox Serbs (194,190 Serbians and 20,365 Montenegrins) - 1,596,072 or 81,6 % Albanians (corrected from 9,091) - 66,189 (Slavic) Muslims (corrected from 57,758) - 45,745 Roma (corrected from 44,307) - 10,445 Turks - 8,062 Croats (Janjevci) - 3,457 Yugoslavs
1999 approx. 88% Albanians (1,672,000), 6% Serbs (114,000), 3% Muslim Slavs (57,000), 2% Roma (38,000), 1% Turks (19,000). Total population circa 1.9 mn. 4