Maglaj is a town and municipality in Bosnia and Herzegovina. It is situated in the northern part of Bosnia-Herzegovina, in the Zenica-Doboj canton. The city lies 25 km (16 mi) south of the city of Doboj, the regional trade, education, culture, entertainment, and business centre. The municipality of Maglaj is one of 12 municipalties in the Zenica-Doboj canton. The city has a population of 25,000. The whole municipality has a population of 43,000
The city, as well as the entire Maglaj municipality, have been subject to a large demographic population shift. Close to all of its pre-war Christian inhabitants, i.e. Orthodox Serbs and Catholic Croats, who made up the majority of the pre-war municipality population, no longer reside in the Maglaj municipality. The Orthodox population has largely settled in the Doboj and Modriča regions of the Republika Srpska, while the Catholic population has settled in the nearby municipality of Žepče, an enclave inhabited largely by Croats. A significant number of former Croat inhabitants have also settled in Croatia's capital Zagreb. Due to severe fighting around Maglaj throughout the Bosnian War, and the catastrophic conditions it was exposed to, numerous Bosniak Muslims have departed the region as well.
Pre-war Maglaj was unique because over one third of its married couples were made up of mixed ethnic groups. As a result of this, a great number of these Maglaj inhabitants felt welcome by none of the three warring ethnic groups, and tried to settle abroad. Consequentially, Maglaj residents have dispersed throughout the world, including Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Scandinavian countries, Italy, the Czech Republic, Canada, the United States, and Australia among others. All former residents of Maglaj are likely never to return as they have adapted to their new surroundings, and those settled in the West enjoy remarkably high standards of living
