The emigration from Serbia consists of citizens of Serbia or Serbia-born people living outside Serbia and its neighboring countries. It is not to be confused with the Serb diaspora, which refers to ethnic Serb people (mainly of the republics of former Yugoslavia) and their descendants living abroad. Recent estimates indicate that about 800,000âÂÂ1 million Serbian nationals live abroad, predominantly in Europe and, to a much lesser extent, overseas (primarily in North America and Oceania).
Citizens of Serbia in the most of the countries and territories bordering Serbia (Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Croatia, Kosovo, and North Macedonia) are generally not considered part of the emigrant population from Serbia, as they are largely indistinguishable from the autochthonous ethnic Serb communities in those states, which have the legal status of recognized ethnic minorities or, in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the constituent peoples.
The major political and economical changes of the 1990s in Serbia after the breakup of Yugoslavia caused economic collapse with an estimated 300,000 people leaving Serbia during that period.
It was estimated in 2015 that 800,000 people in Serbia receive monetary help from relatives abroad.