Gostivar Municipality

Gostivar (Macedonian: Гостивар [ˈɡɔstivar] ^ⓘ; Albanian: Komuna e Gostivarit) is a municipality in the western part of North Macedonia. Gostivar is also the name of the town where the municipal seat is found. The municipality is part of the Polog Statistical Region.

Municipality of Gostivar Општина Гостивар Komuna e Gostivarit
Urban municipality
Flag Coat of arms
Country	North Macedonia
Region	Polog
Municipal seat	Gostivar
Government
• Mayor	Arben Taravari (AA)
Area
• Total	513.39 km2 (198.22 sq mi)
Population
• Total	59,770
• Density	158/km2 (410/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
Website	Official Website

Population of Gostivar. (11 January 1945)

Geography

The municipality borders

• the Mavrovo and Rostuša, Kičevo municipalities to the south,
• Makedonski Brod Municipality to the east,
• Brvenica and Vrapčište municipalities to the north, and
• Albania and Kosovo to the west.

Demographics

The municipality has 35 inhabited places, one town and 34 villages. According to the 2021 North Macedonia census, this municipality has 59,770 inhabitants.^[1]

	2002		2021
	Number	%	Number	%
TOTAL	81,042	100	59,770	100
Albanians	54,038	66.68	33,076	55.34
Macedonians	15,877	19.59	12,807	21.43
Turks	7,991	9.86	7,597	12.71
Roma	2,237	2.76	2,237	3.8
Serbs	160	0.2	73	0.12
Bosniaks	39	0.05	25	0.04
Vlachs	15	0.02	17	0.03
Other / Undeclared / Unknown	685	0.84	493	0.83
Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources			3,409	5.7

Mother tongues among the municipality residents include:^[2]

• Albanian: 33,204 (55.6%)
• Macedonian: 14,313 (24.0%)
• Turkish: 7,576 (12.7%)
• Romani: 1,087 (1.8%)
• Others: 181 (0.3%)
• Persons for whom data are taken from administrative sources: 3,409 (5.7%)

History

See also: Bulgarian occupation of Serbia (World War I)

Several villages were burned down in Gostivar during 1912-16 by Serbian and Bulgarian forces.^[3] Two of these villages were Reč, which had a population in 1900 of 140 Muslim Albanians and 150 Orthodox Albanians, and Strezimir which at that time was inhabited by 56 Muslim Albanians and 180 Orthodox Albanians.^[4] Another such example is Štirovica.

On 26 November 2019, an earthquake struck Albania and Gostivar Municipality contributed humanitarian aid and teams of firefighters and doctors toward the relief effort for earthquake victims.^[5]