The Statistics Bureau head Apostol Simovski said that long delayed census will be held in April 2020 and, as announced, Macedonian citizens living abroad will be counted toward the census.

This is a major requirement of the ethnic Albanian parties, who insist that the percentage of Albanians in the Macedonian population must not fall below 20 percent. Emigrants will have to apply to be counted or appoint a friend or a relative to give their data to census officers.

A total of 6.000 people will be engaged in the process which will cost 8.5 million EUR. The last census was held in 2002, and the attempt in 2011 failed after Albanian parties insisted on counting emigrants.