Talking to Zlata Nemet, today I learned that there are exactly two-hundred and twenty-four pensioners in the municipality at the moment. As she runs the association of pensioners in Motovun, she is quite sure of the number, too. According to the 2001 census, there were nine-hundred and eighty-three inhabitants in the municipality. The 2011 census is likely to show at most nine-hundred people, though. That is to say, about twenty-five percent of Motovun’s population are pensioners now. To the best of my knowledge, the share of pensioners in the total population of Croatia is about fifteen percent. The difference between these two shares tells a good deal about Motovun. As Zlata would most likely agree without any fuss, this is a pensioners’ town.

Addendum (December 24, 2016)

According to Zlata Nemet, with whom I talked earlier today, there are exactly two-hundred and seventy-four pensioners in the municipality right now. But this is only an official number, she explained. The regional authorities will update this number pretty soon, and it is likely to be considerably larger. Say, there are at least twenty more recent pensioners at present. As for the last census, the municipality now counts one-thousand and one person (“A Magical Number,” July 1, 2011). In short, the share of pensioners in the total population is close to thirty per cent by now. In about a decade, it will reach fifty percent. Soon enough, Motovun will become a pensioners’ town for true. Once again, Zlata could not but agree. The association she is running is growing by leaps and bounds. It beats all the others by a wide margin, too.