Why Montenegro 🇲🇪 has low population?

Posted by greekscientist@reddit | AskBalkans | View on Reddit | 146 comments

I see that Montenegro has only 623,000 people, being the least populated country in Europe outside of the island states and the micro states like Andorra, Liechtenstein. Montenegro didn't have any wars in the 1990s or the large scale emigration that Croatia, Bosnia or Serbia has, yet it has a low population.

What factors made Montenegro such low populated? Geography? Older conflicts? Stagnation after 1990?