The demographic history of Croatia is characterised by significant migrations, starting with the arrival of the Croats in the area. According to the work
De Administrando Imperio written by the 10th-century Byzantine Emperor
Constantine VII, the Croats arrived in the area of modern-day Croatia in the early 7th century. However, that claim is disputed, and competing hypotheses date the event between the 6th and the 9th centuries. Following the establishment of a
personal union of Croatia and Hungary in 1102, and the joining of the
Habsburg Empire in 1527, the Hungarian and German-speaking population of Croatia began gradually increasing in number. The processes of
Magyarization and
Germanization varied in intensity but persisted to the 20th century. The increased military activity and
Orthodox refugee populations from
Bosnia and
Serbia initiated by
Ottoman conquests also caused a westward migration of parts of the Croatian population; the
Burgenland Croats are direct descendants of some of those settlers. Serb migration into this region peaked during the
Great Serb Migrations of 1690 and 1737–39. Similarly,
Venetian Republic rule in
Istria and in
Dalmatia, following the
Fifth and the
Seventh Ottoman–Venetian Wars ushered gradual growth of Italian speaking population in those areas. Following the collapse of
Austria-Hungary in 1918, the Hungarian population declined, especially in the areas north of the
Drava river, where they represented the majority before
World War I. The period between 1890 and World War I was marked by large economic emigration from Croatia to the
United States, and particularly to the areas of
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,
Cleveland, Ohio, and
Chicago, Illinois. Besides the United States, the main destination of the migrants was
South America, especially
Argentina,
Chile,
Bolivia and
Peru. It is estimated that 500,000 people left Croatia during this period. After World War I, the main focus of emigration shifted to
Canada, where about 15,000 people settled before the onset of
World War II. During World War II and in the period immediately following the war, there were further significant demographic changes as the German-speaking population, the
Volksdeutsche, were either forced or otherwise compelled to leave—reducing their number from the prewar German population of
Yugoslavia of 500,000, living in parts of present-day Croatia and Serbia, to the figure of 62,000 recorded in the 1953 census. were the majority of the population, in orange the areas where
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians were the majority of the population. The boundaries of
Venetian Dalmatia in 1797 are delimited with blue dots. leave
Pola in 1947 during the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus. After the fall of
Napoleon (1814), Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia were annexed to the
Austrian Empire. Many
Istrian Italians and
Dalmatian Italians looked with sympathy towards the
Risorgimento movement that fought for the unification of Italy. However, after the
Third Italian War of Independence (1866), when the
Veneto and
Friuli regions were ceded by the
Austrians to the newly formed
Kingdom Italy, Istria and Dalmatia remained part of the
Austro-Hungarian Empire, together with other Italian-speaking areas on the eastern Adriatic. This triggered the gradual rise of
Italian irredentism among many Italians in Istria, Kvarner and Dalmatia, who demanded the unification of the
Julian March,
Kvarner and
Dalmatia with Italy. Moreover, as Italian was the language of administration, education, the press, and the
Austrian navy before 1859, people who wished to acquire higher social standing and separate from the
Slav peasantry became
Italians. In the years after 1866, Italians lost their privileges in
Austria-Hungary, their assimilation of the Slavs came to an end, and they found themselves under growing pressure by other rising nations; with the
rising Slav tide after 1890,
italianized Slavs reverted to being Croats. Austrian rulers found use of the racial antagonism and financed Slav schools and promoted Croatian as the official language, and many Italians chose voluntary exile. Austrians carried out an aggressive
anti-Italian policy. Istrian Italians made up about a third of the population in Istria in 1900. The Italian-speaking population in Dalmatia, comprising 12.5% of the total population in 1865, was concentrated in the major coastal cities. In the city of
Split in 1890 there were 1,971
Dalmatian Italians (9% of the population), in
Zadar 7,672 (27%), in
Šibenik 1,090 (5%), in
Kotor 646 (12%) and in
Dubrovnik 356 (3%). In the 1910 Austro-Hungarian census, Istria had a population of 57.8% Slavic-speakers (Croat and Slovene), and 38.1% Italian speakers. For the Austrian
Kingdom of Dalmatia, (i.e.
Dalmatia), the 1910 numbers were 96.2% Slavic speakers and 2.8% Italian speakers. In
Rijeka the Italians were the relative majority in the municipality (48.61% in 1910), and in addition to the large Croatian community (25.95% in the same year), there was also a fair Hungarian minority (13.03%). According to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are Italians in Rijeka (equal to 1.9% of the total population). The 1947
Treaty of Peace with Italy provided for the
right of option of Italian citizens living in the territories that were to be taken over by Greece, France, and Yugoslavia to remain Italian citizens, provided the possibility of request by those states that they moved out of the area within a year; it granted a similar right of option to Italian citizens who habitually spoke "one of the Yugoslav languages (
Serbian,
Croatian or
Slovene)" and who lived in Italian territory. Some 300,000 inhabitants of the taken-over areas—predominantly ethnic Italians, but also tens of thousands of Croats and Slovenes—eventually left, in what was later called the
Istrian–Dalmatian exodus. The emigrants, who had lived in the now Yugoslav territories of the
Julian March (
Karst Region and
Istria),
Kvarner and
Dalmatia, largely went to
Italy, but some joined the
Italian diaspora in the
Americas,
Australia and
South Africa. According to the census organized in
Croatia in 2001 and that organized in
Slovenia in 2002, there were 2,258 Italians
in Slovenia and 19,636
in Croatia. Since the dissolution of Yugoslavia, a significant portion of the population of Istria opted for a regional declaration in the census instead of a national one. As such, more people have Italian as a first language than those having declared Italian. In 2001, about 500 Dalmatian Italians were counted in Dalmatia. In particular, according to the official Croatian census of 2011, there are 83 Dalmatian Italians in
Split (equal to 0.05% of the total population), 16 in
Šibenik (0.03%) and 27 in
Dubrovnik (0.06%). According to the official Croatian census of 2021, there are 63 Dalmatian Italians in
Zadar (equal to 0.09% of the total population). According to the official Montenegrin census of 2011, there are 31 Dalmatian Italians in
Kotor (equal to 0.14% of the total population). The 1940s and the 1950s in Yugoslavia were marked by colonisation of settlements where the displaced Germans used to live by people from the mountainous parts of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and
Montenegro, and migrations to larger cities spurred on by the development of industry. In the 1960s and 1970s, another wave of economic migrants left Croatia. They largely moved to Canada,
Australia,
New Zealand and
Western Europe. During this period, 65,000 people left for Canada, Particularly large European emigrant communities of Croats exist in
Germany,
Austria and
Switzerland, which largely stem from the 1960s and 1970s migrations. A series of significant migrations came as a result of the 1991–1995 Croatian War of Independence. In 1991, more than 100,000 Croats and other non-Serbs were displaced by the Croatian Serb forces or fled the violence in areas with significant Serb populations.
Demographic losses in the 20th century wars and pandemics In addition to demographic losses through significant migrations, the population of Croatia suffered significant losses due to wars and epidemics. In the 20th century alone, there were several such events. The first was World War I, when the loss of the population of Croatia amounted to an estimated 190,000 persons, or about 5.5% of the total population recorded by the 1910 census. The
1918 flu pandemic started to take its toll in Croatia in July 1918, with peaks of the disease occurring in October and November. Available data is scarce, but it is estimated that the pandemic caused at least 15,000–20,000 deaths. Around 295,000 people were killed on the territory of present-day Croatia during World War II, according to the demographer
Bogoljub Kočović. The demise of the armed forces of the
Independent State of Croatia and of the civilians accompanying the troops at the end of World War II was followed by the
Yugoslav death march of Nazi collaborators. A substantial number of people were executed, but the exact number is disputed. The claims range from 12,000 to 15,000 to as many as 80,000 killed in May 1945. Finally, approximately 20,000 were killed or went missing during the 1991–1995 Croatian War of Independence. The figure pertains only to those persons who would have been recorded by the 1991 census as living in Croatia. ==Migration==