ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Demographic history of North Macedonia

Well kiddo, demographic history means how the people living in a place have changed over time. Let's talk about North Macedonia, which is a country in Europe.

A long, long time ago, there were different groups of people living in the region that is now North Macedonia. Some were Greeks, some were Romans, and some were Slavs. They all kind of mixed together over time and eventually became the people we now call Macedonians.

During the 20th century, there were some big changes in North Macedonia's demographic history. In the early 1900s, there were a lot of different groups of people living there - Macedonians, Albanians, Turks, and more.

Then, in the mid-1900s, a lot of people moved around because of a big political change. North Macedonia used to be part of Yugoslavia (which was made up of a bunch of different countries). But in the 1990s, Yugoslavia broke apart and North Macedonia became its own independent country.

This change caused a lot of people to move around. Some Macedonians left to live in other countries, while some Albanians moved in. Today, about two-thirds of the people in North Macedonia are considered Macedonians. The next largest group is Albanians, who make up about a quarter of the population. There are also smaller groups of people from different countries, like Turks and Roma.

So, that's the demographic history of North Macedonia in a nutshell! People from different places mixed together over time, and more recently there have been some changes in who lives there. It's important to remember that no matter where people come from, everyone is equal and deserves respect.