This work uses public demographic statistics, education statistics and macroeconomic data to attempt to quantify the impact of the current emigration trend on the economy of the Republic of Serbia, and to set a basis for detailed and deeper analysis.
The results show that the total education costs of people who leave Serbia in one year, depending on the educational structure, vary from €960 million to little over €1.2 billion.
The results show that directly and indirectly, due to an inability to prevent the annual outflow by hiring people, the annual gross added value loss was around €897.3 million, which is around 2.1 per cent of GDP from 2018.
The most important benefit of the emigration flow is the remittances. Serbia is at the top among European countries in the contribution of remittances to the GDP, sharing first place with Albania, with five to six per cent of GDP.
The future projection based on the growth of the negative migration balance and the decade-long negative demographic trends paint a depressing image of Serbian society in a not-so-distant future.