SOCIO-ECONOMIC CHANGES IN THE REGION OF KUPRES AFTER THE SECOND WORLD WAR (1945. - 1991.)

The region of Kupres covers high karst fields of Blagaj, Kupres, Vukovsko and Ravno in the South-Western Bosnia. In the pre-war times (1941.) there were cca 20.500 inhabitants in this region and in 1981. only 10,098, which is 50,7% less than in 1941. This is due prirnarily to war devastation and post-war ermgration owing to economic reasons. In the pre-war times and immediately after the war agriculture was the predominant ucupattion of the population, sheep and cattle breeding in particular. In the post-war years, bessides agriculture, other economic activties, like industry,trade, mountain tourism etc have started, due to whic the percent of agricultural population has fallen from 89% to 46%.