Before the Austro-Turkish war and the 1698 Great Fire, Skopje was one of the biggest cities in the Balkans, with a population estimated between 30,000 and 60,000 inhabitants. After the fire, it experienced a long period of decline and only had 10,000 inhabitants in 1836. However, the population started to rise again after 1850 and reached 32,000 inhabitants in 1905. In the 20th century, Skopje was one of the fastest growing cities in Yugoslavia and it had 448,200 inhabitants in 1971. Since then, the demographic growth has continued at a steady pace.