Authors
Martin Hochel1; Nevena Trnavčević2; 1 Comenius University, Slovakia; 2 Faculty of Geography, University of Belgrade, Serbia Discussion
Throughout the 20th century, the categorization of ethnic identity in population censuses played an important role in shaping state policies, defining minority rights, and reflecting broader political and social transformations. Although it was anticipated that the significance of this question would decrease in coming years, the opposite trend has emerged, marked by a renewed emphasis on the importance of ethnic identity. However, according to international recommendations for censuses, the question of nationality does not fall under the so-called „core topics“, so each country independently decides whether to collect this data or not. Slovakia and Serbia are among the countries that have a record of collecting ethnic data reflecting certain ethnic characteristics of the general population. This article focuses on the practice of nominal ethnic data collection, postdating 1918, in two ethnically diverse territories of southern Slovakia and Vojvodina. Despite being once part of the Hungarian Kingdom, the two regions have been marked by varying degree of minority specific recognition, which has been reflected in the census questions. The analysis thus compares their extent and mutual exhaustiveness against the distinct minority-based institutional setting and legislation. Drawing on the theoretical framework of triadic configuration and the method of most similar case design, the empirical findings are discussed against important institutional changes in the regions’ minority legislations. The conclusions are expected to elaborate on the potential of applying greater extent of ethnic categories, and their non-exhaustiveness, as means to measure trends in ethnic self-identification in the two multi-ethnic regions. 
