Croats of Vojvodina
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 57,900 (2011) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
 Vojvodina
|
47,033 |
 Belgrade
|
7,752 |
| Languages | |
| Serbian and Croatian | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bunjevci, Šokci | |
| Coat of arms of Croats of Serbia Grb Hrvata u Srbiji |
|
|---|---|
 |
|
| Details | |
| Adopted | 11 June 2005 |
| Use | Croat minority in Serbia |
The Croats of Serbia (Croatian: Hrvati u Srbiji, Serbian: Хрвати у Србији / Hrvati u Srbiji) or Serbian Croats (Croatian: Srpski Hrvati, Serbian: Српски Хрвати / Srpski Hrvati) are the recognized Croat national minority in Serbia, a status they received in 2002. According to the 2011 census, there were 57,900 Croats in Serbia or 0.8% of the region's population. Of these, 47,033 lived in Vojvodina, where they formed the fourth largest ethnic group, representing 2.8% of the population. A further 7,752 lived in the national capital Belgrade, with the remaining 3,115 in the rest of the country.
During the 15th century, Croats mostly lived in the Syrmia region. It is estimated that they were a majority in 76 out of 801 villages that existed in the present-day territory of Vojvodina. During the 17th century, Roman Catholic Bunjevci from Dalmatia migrated to Vojvodina, where Šokci had already been living. According to some opinions, Šokci might be descendants of medieval Slavic population of Vojvodina where their ancestors might lived since the 8th century. According to other opinions, medieval Slavs of Vojvodina mainly spoke ikavian dialect, which is today rather associated with standard Croatian. Between 1689, when the Habsburg Monarchy conquered parts of Vojvodina, and the end of the 19th century, a small number of Croats from Croatia also migrated to the region.
Before the 20th century, most of the Bunjevac and Šokac populations living in Habsburg Monarchy haven't been nationally awakened yet. Some of their leaders (like Ivan Antunović, Blaško Rajić, Petar Pekić, Pajo Kujundžić, Mijo Mandić, Lajčo Budanović, Stipan Vojnić Tunić, Vranje Sudarević, etc.) worked hardly to awake their Croatian or Yugoslav national feelings.
...
Wikipedia