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Priboj

Town and municipality in Šumadija and Western Serbia, Serbia

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Priboj (Serbian Cyrillic: Прибој, pronounced [prǐːbɔj]) is a town and municipality located in the Zlatibor District of southwestern Serbia. The population of the town is 13,172, while the population of the municipality is 23,514.

01Geography

The municipality of Priboj is located between municipality of Čajetina in the north, municipality of Nova Varoš in the east, municipality of Prijepolje in the south-east, the border with Montenegro in the south-west, and the border with Bosnia and Herzegovina in the north-west. A Bosnian-Herzegovinian exclave (Međurječje village) is surrounded by the Priboj municipality.

The town of Priboj lies on the river Lim. It is 5 km away from the Uvac, a smaller river that marks (for some 10 kilometers) part of the border between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia.

Climate

Priboj has an oceanic climate (Köppen climate classification: Cfb).

Climate data for Priboj
Month Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Year
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) 2.8
(37.0)
5.9
(42.6)
10.9
(51.6)
14.5
(58.1)
19.5
(67.1)
22.9
(73.2)
26.0
(78.8)
25.6
(78.1)
22.2
(72.0)
16.9
(62.4)
9.2
(48.6)
4.4
(39.9)
15.1
(59.1)
Daily mean °C (°F) −0.9
(30.4)
1.6
(34.9)
5.8
(42.4)
9.2
(48.6)
13.9
(57.0)
17.2
(63.0)
19.5
(67.1)
19.2
(66.6)
16.0
(60.8)
11.4
(52.5)
5.3
(41.5)
1.1
(34.0)
9.9
(49.9)
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) −4.6
(23.7)
−2.6
(27.3)
0.8
(33.4)
4.0
(39.2)
8.4
(47.1)
11.6
(52.9)
13.2
(55.8)
12.9
(55.2)
9.8
(49.6)
6.0
(42.8)
1.4
(34.5)
−2.2
(28.0)
4.9
(40.8)
Average precipitation mm (inches) 80
(3.1)
72
(2.8)
71
(2.8)
83
(3.3)
97
(3.8)
92
(3.6)
79
(3.1)
71
(2.8)
83
(3.3)
89
(3.5)
103
(4.1)
94
(3.7)
1,014
(39.9)
Source: Climate-Data.org

02History

The hamlet of Jarmovac south of Priboj is the site of a prehistoric copper mine shaft which is one of the first evidences of human metallurgy, first identified in 1937, now dated to the 4th millennium BCE in the late Vinča culture.

During the medieval times, the region around modern city of Priboj in the lower valley of the Lim river was called "Dabar" and it belonged to the medieval Serbia until the Ottoman invasion in the middle of 15th century. Between 1459 and 1463, the town of Priboj was first mentioned in written documents of the Ottoman Empire.

03Settlements

04Demographics

Historical population
YearPop.±% p.a.
194817,989,     
195320,784+2.93%
196126,147+2.91%
197132,548+2.21%
198135,200+0.79%
199135,951+0.21%
200230,377−1.52%
201127,133−1.25%
202223,514−1.29%
Source:

According to 2022 census, the municipality of Priboj has 23,514 inhabitants.

Ethnic groups

In 1991, the population of the Priboj municipality numbered 35,951 people, and was composed of Serbs (67.26%), Muslims (30.39%) and others. Most of those who in 1991 census declared themselves as ethnic Muslims, in the next census in 2002 declared themselves as Bosniaks, while the smaller number of them still declare themselves as Muslims by ethnicity.

In 2022, the population of the town was 13,172, and was composed of Serbs (9,155), Bosniaks (2,153), ethnic Muslims (687) and others. As of 2022, most of Priboj's population is of Serbian ethnicity (71.9%), with nearly 21.5% being Bosniaks.

The ethnic composition of the municipality:

Census 1991 Census 2011 Census 2022
Ethnic group Population % Population % Population %
Serbs 23,421 65.220,582 75.9 16,909 71.9
Bosniaks 10,927 30.43,811 14.1 4,144 17.6
Ethnic Muslims1,944 7.1 914 3.9
Yugoslavs 534 1.536 0.1 46 0.2
Hungarians 16 0.011 0.0 4 0.0
Macedonians 33 0.09 0.0 4 0.0
Others 1,020 2.8740 2.7 1,493 6.3
Total 35,951 27,133 23,514

05Economy

Today, most of Priboj's economy is based on agriculture, services and partly industry. Priboj is home to the FAP Corporation, which pushed Priboj's development during the 1970s and 1980s, when it was one of the biggest producers of trucks and buses in the former Yugoslavia. Since the 1990s, FAP has been working in limited capacity and since the 2010s its only remaining production is military-oriented.

As of September 2017, Priboj has one of 14 free economic zones established in Serbia.

The following table gives a preview of total number of registered people employed in legal entities per their core activity (as of 2022):

Activity Total
Agriculture, forestry and fishing59
Mining and quarrying2
Manufacturing1,661
Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply88
Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities84
Construction299
Wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles478
Transportation and storage351
Accommodation and food services188
Information and communication45
Financial and insurance activities44
Real estate activities26
Professional, scientific and technical activities161
Administrative and support service activities81
Public administration and defense; compulsory social security337
Education394
Human health and social work activities475
Arts, entertainment and recreation105
Other service activities69
Individual agricultural workers5
Total4,952

06Sports

Local football club FK FAP competes in the second tier of Serbian football as of the 2025/26 season. They also had a couple of seasons in the [Yugoslav Second League]] during the 1970s.

07Notable people

Watch videos about PribojExplainers and documentaries on YouTube (opens in a new tab)

Sources and credits

This article is adapted from the Wikipedia article Priboj, written by its contributors and licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0. Fathomly has changed the layout, removed citation markers, navigation and maintenance notices, and adjusted punctuation. This adapted version is shared under the same license. For references, see the original article.

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