National minorities in the Republic of Croatia

Abstract

As of 1991, in the Republic of Croatia 16 percent of the total population was made up of national minorities. A large part of this figure consists of minrity nations who are the descendants of settlers from the era of Ottoman conquest during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the Austrian colonization in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, and partially due to inter-republic migrations during the existence of the Yugoslav state.

The most numerous national minority in 1991 were the Serbs (582,000, or 12.16% of the total population). The Serbian national minority is scattered throughout the Croatian state, so that in Croatia there is no integral Serbian ethnic territory. The other national minorities in Croatia are much smaller in number (Bosnian Muslims, 43,000; Slovenes, 22,000; Hungarians, 22,000; Italians, 21,000; Czechs, 13,000; Albanians, 12,000; etc.).

The conflicts provoked by Greater Serbian politics and the wartime aggression against Croatia resulted in migrations, the consequence of which is the reduction in the number of the Serbian national minority in the Republic of Croatia.