| Southern and Eastern Serbia | |
| Settlement Type: | Statistical region of Serbia |
| Subdivision Type: | Country |
| Subdivision Name: |  Serbia |
| Seat Type: | Largest city |
| Seat: | Niš |
| Established Title: | Founded |
| Established Date: | 2010 |
| Area Footnotes: | [1] |
| Area Rank: | 2nd |
| Area Total Km2: | 26,245 |
| Population Footnotes: | [2] |
| Population Rank: | 4th |
| Population Total: | 1,406,050 |
| Population Density Km2: | auto |
| Demographics Type1: | GDP |
| Demographics1 Footnotes: | [3] |
| Demographics1 Title1: | Total |
| Demographics1 Info1: | RSD 1,077.359 billion €9.172 billion (2022) |
| Demographics1 Title2: | Per capita |
| Demographics1 Info2: | RSD 763,000 €6,496 (2022) |
| Blank Name Sec1: | HDI[4] |
| Blank Info Sec1: | 0.797 (2019) · 4th in Serbia |
The Southern and Eastern Serbia (sr|Јужна и источна Србија|Južna i istočna Srbija) is one of five statistical regions of Serbia. It is also a Level-2 statistical region according to the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS).
In 2009, the National Assembly adopted a law which divided Serbia into seven statistical regions.[5] At first, it was decided that in the territory of current statistical region of Southern and Eastern Serbia there would be two statistical regions – Eastern Region (sr|Источни регион|Istočni region) and Southern Region (sr|Јужни регион|Južni region). However, in 2010, the law was changed, thus the Eastern and Southern regions were merged into a single statistical region named Southern and Eastern Serbia.
The statistical region of Southern and Eastern Serbia is composed of 9 administrative districts:
| District | Area (km2) | Population (2022) | Seat |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1,250 | 175,573 | Smederevo | |
| 3,865 | 156,367 | Požarevac | |
| 3,510 | 101,100 | Bor | |
| 3,623 | 96,715 | Zaječar | |
| 2,727 | 343,950 | Niš | |
| 2,761 | 76,700 | Pirot | |
| 2,229 | 77,341 | Prokuplje | |
| 2,770 | 184,502 | Leskovac | |
| 3,520 | 193,802 | Vranje | |
The region is heavily affected by depopulation. Most critical situation is in municipalities of Gadžin Han, Crna Trava, Ražanj, Trgovište, Dimitrovgrad, and Bosilegrad. A stark example of depopulation is Crna Trava, which used to have 13,614 inhabitants in 1948, while in 2022 only 1,063 people were registered.[6]
The following list include cities and towns with over 20,000 inhabitants.
| City or town | Population (2022)[7] | |
|---|---|---|
| 182,797 | ||
| 59,261 | ||
| 58,338 | ||
| 50,954 | ||
| 42,530 | ||
| 34,942 | ||
| 32,448 | ||
| 28,822 | ||
| 24,627 | ||
| 20,345 |
| Serbs | 1,173,092 | 83.43% | |
| Albanians | 58,145 | 4.14% | |
| Romani people | 50,671 | 3.60% | |
| Vlachs | 19,569 | 1.39% | |
| Bulgarians | 10,554 | 0.75% | |
| Undeclared | 20,495 | 1.46% | |
| Unknown | 59,725 | 4.25% |