"Slav people" and "Slav" redirect here. For the Slavs of the Early Middle Ages, seeEarly Slavs. For the First Nations ethnic group, seeSlavey. For other uses, seeSlav (disambiguation).
Beginning in the mid-19th century, apan-Slavic movement has emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus of the movement was in the Balkans, whereas theRussian Empire was opposed to it.
Though the majority of Slavs areChristians, some groups, such as the Bosniaks, mostly identify asMuslims. Modern Slavic nations and ethnic groups are considerably diverse, both genetically and culturally, and relations between them may range from "ethnic solidarity to mutual feelings of hostility" — even within the individual groups.[10]
The oldest mention of the Slavicethnonym is from the 6th century AD, whenProcopius, writing inByzantine Greek, used various forms such asSklaboi (Σκλάβοι),Sklabēnoi (Σκλαβηνοί),Sklauenoi (Σκλαυηνοί),Sthlabenoi (Σθλαβηνοί), orSklabinoi (Σκλαβῖνοι),[11] and his contemporaryJordanes refers to theSclaveni inLatin.[12] The oldest documents written inOld Church Slavonic, dating from the 9th century, attest the autonym asSlověne (Словѣне). Those forms point back to a Slavicautonym, which can be reconstructed inProto-Slavic as*Slověninъ, pluralSlověne.[citation needed]
The reconstructed autonym*Slověninъ is usually considered a derivation fromslovo ("word"), originally denoting "people who speak (the same language)", meaning "people who understand one another", in contrast to the Slavic word denoting "German people", namely*němьcь, meaning "silent, mute people" (from Slavic*němъ "mute, mumbling"). The wordslovo ("word") and the relatedslava ("glory, fame") andsluh ("hearing") originate from theProto-Indo-European root*ḱlew- ("be spoken of, glory"), cognate with Ancient Greekκλέος (kléos "fame"), as in the namePericles, Latinclueō ("be called"), and Englishloud.[citation needed]
In medieval and early modern sources written in Latin, Slavs are most commonly referred to asSclaveni or the shortened versionSclavi.[13]
Terracotta tile from the 6th–7th century AD found inVinica,North Macedonia, depicting a battle scene between theBulgars and Slavs, with the Latin inscription BOLGAR and SCLAVIGI[14]
Jordanes, in his workGetica (written in 551 AD),[17] describes the Veneti as a "populous nation" whose dwellings begin at the sources of the Vistula and occupy "a great expanse of land". He also describes the Veneti as the ancestors of Antes and Slaveni, two early Slavic tribes, who appeared on the Byzantine frontier in the early-6th century.
Procopius wrote in 545 that "the Sclaveni and the Antae actually had a single name in the remote past; for they were both calledSporoi in olden times". The nameSporoi derives fromGreek σπείρω ("tosow"). He described them as barbarians, who lived underdemocracy and believed in one god, "the maker of lightning" (Perun), to whom they made sacrifice. They lived in scattered housing and constantly changed settlement. In war, they were mainly foot soldiers with shields, spears, bows, and little armour, which was reserved mainly for chiefs and their inner circle of warriors.[18] Their language is "barbarous" (that is, not Greek), and the two tribes are alike in appearance, being tall and robust, "while their bodies and hair are neither very fair or blond, nor indeed do they incline entirely to the dark type, but they are all slightly ruddy in color. And they live a hard life, giving no heed to bodily comforts..."[19]
Jordanes describes the Sclaveni as having swamps and forests for their cities.[20] Another 6th-century source refers to them living among nearly-impenetrable forests, rivers, lakes, and marshes.[21]
Menander Protector mentionsDaurentius (r. c. 577 – 579) who slew anAvar envoy of KhaganBayan I for asking the Slavs to accept the suzerainty of the Avars; Daurentius declined and is reported as saying: "Others do not conquer our land, we conquer theirs – so it shall always be for us as long as there are wars and weapons".[22]
Slavic tribes from the 7th to 9th centuries AD in Europe
According to eastern homeland theory,[citation needed] prior to becoming known to theRoman world,Slavic-speaking tribes formed part of successive multi-ethnic confederacies ofEurasia – such as the Sarmatian, Hun and Gothic empires. The Slavs emerged from obscurity when the westward movement of Germanic tribes in the 5th and 6th centuries AD (thought[citation needed] to be in conjunction with the movement of peoples from Siberia and Eastern Europe:Huns, and laterAvars andBulgars) started thegreat migration of the Slavs, who settled the lands abandoned by Germanic tribes who had fled from the Huns and their allies. Slavs, according to this account, moved westward into the country between theOder and theElbe-Saale line; southward intoBohemia,Moravia, much of present-dayAustria, thePannonian plain and theBalkans; and northward along the upperDnieper river. It has also been suggested that some Slavs migrated with theVandals to theIberian Peninsula and even toNorth Africa.[23]
Around the 6th century, Slavs appeared onByzantine borders in large numbers.[24] Byzantine records note that Slav numbers were so great, that grass would not regrow where the Slavs had marched through[citation needed]. Military movements resulted in even thePeloponnese andAsia Minor being reported to have Slavic settlements.[25] This southern movement has traditionally been seen as an invasive expansion.[26] By the end of the 6th century, Slavs hadsettled the Eastern Alps regions.[27]
Pope Gregory I in 600 AD wrote to Maximus, the bishop ofSalona (inDalmatia), expressing concern about the arrival of the Slavs,
Latin:Et quidem de Sclavorum gente, quae vobis valde imminet, et affligor vehementer et conturbor. Affligor in his quae jam in vobis patior; conturbor, quia per Istriae aditum jam ad Italiam intrare coeperunt.
English: I am both distressed and disturbed about the Slavs, who are pressing hard on you. I am distressed because I sympathize with you; I am disturbed because they have already begun to arrive inItaly through the entry-point ofIstria.[28]
When Slav migrations ended, their firststate organizations appeared, each headed by a prince with a treasury and a defense force. In the 7th century, the Frankish merchantSamo supported the Slavs against theirAvar rulers and became the ruler of the first known Slav state in Central Europe,Samo's Empire. This early Slavic polity probably did not outlive its founder and ruler, but it was the foundation for laterWest Slavic states on its territory.
Pan-Slavism, a movement which came into prominence in the mid-19th century, emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The main focus was in the Balkans where the South Slavs had been ruled for centuries by other empires: the Byzantine Empire,Austria-Hungary, theOttoman Empire, andVenice. Austro-Hungary envisioned its own political concept ofAustro-Slavism, in opposition of Pan-Slavism that was predominantly led by theRussian Empire.[30]
As of 1878, there were only three majority Slavic states in the world: the Russian Empire,Principality of Serbia andPrincipality of Montenegro.Bulgaria was effectively independent but wasde jure vassal to the Ottoman Empire until official independence was declared in 1908. The Slavic peoples who were, for the most part, denied a voice in the affairs of theAustro-Hungarian Empire, were calling for national self-determination.[31]
In early 1941, Germany began planningGeneralplan Ost, the genocide of Slavs in Eastern Europe which was supposed to start after a major expansion ofGerman concentration camps in occupied Poland and the fall of Stalin's regime.[36][38][39] This plan was to be carried out gradually over 25 to 30 years.[32][38] After an approximate 30 million[40] Slavs would be killed through starvation and their major cities depopulated, the Germans were supposed to repopulate Eastern Europe.[39][41][42] In June 1941, when Germany invaded the Soviet Union inOperation Barbarossa, Hitler paused the plan to focus on theextermination of the Jews.[42] However, some of the plan was nonetheless implemented. Millions of Slavs were murdered in Eastern Europe;[42] this includes victims of theHunger Plan, Germany's intentional starvation of the region,[40] as well as themurders of 3.3. million Soviet prisoners of war.[43] Germany'sHeinrich Himmler also ordered his subordinateLudolf-Hermann von Alvensleben to start repopulatingCrimea, and hundreds of ethnic Germans were forcibly moved to cities and villages there.[44] The SovietRed Army took back their land from the Germansin 1944.[42] Stephen J. Lee estimates that, by the end ofWorld War II in 1945, the Russian population was about90 million fewer than it could have been otherwise.[45]
In 1991, theSoviet Union collapsed, and many former Soviet republics became independent countries.[35][50] Currently, former Soviet states in Central Asia such asKazakhstan andKyrgyzstan have very large minority Slavic populations, with most being Russians.[50] Kazakhstan has the largest Slavic minority population.[51]
Proto-Slavic, the supposed ancestor language of all Slavic languages, is a descendant of commonProto-Indo-European, via aBalto-Slavic stage in which it developed numerous lexical and morphophonological isoglosses with theBaltic languages. In the framework of theKurgan hypothesis, "the Indo-Europeans who remained after the migrations [from the steppe] became speakers of Balto-Slavic".[52]
Proto-Slavic is defined as the last stage of the language preceding the geographical split of the historicalSlavic languages. That language was uniform, and on the basis of borrowings from foreign languages and Slavic borrowings into other languages, it cannot be said to have any recognizable dialects, which suggests that there was, at one time, a relatively-smallProto-Slavic homeland.[53] However, from a historical and archaeological point of view, the existence of a homogeneous Proto-Slavic people is judged improbable.[54]
Slavic linguistic unity was to some extent visible as late asOld Church Slavonic (orOld Bulgarian) manuscripts which, though based on local Slavic speech ofThessaloniki, could still serve the purpose of the first common Slavic literary language.[55]
The alphabets used for Slavic languages are usually connected to the dominant religion among the respective ethnic groups. Orthodox Christians use theCyrillic alphabet while Catholics use theLatin alphabet; the Bosniaks, who are Muslim, also use the Latin alphabet and Cyrillic alphabet in Serbia. Additionally, someEastern Catholics andWestern Catholics use the Cyrillic alphabet. Serbian and Montenegrin use both the Cyrillic and Latin alphabets. There is also a Latin script to write in Belarusian, calledŁacinka and in Ukrainian, calledLatynka.[citation needed]
South Slavs from most of the region have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed with the local Proto-Balkanic tribes (Illyrian,Dacian,Thracian,Paeonian,Hellenic tribes), andCeltic tribes (particularly theScordisci), as well as with Romans (and the Romanized remnants of the former groups), and also with remnants of temporarily settled invading East Germanic, Asiatic or Caucasian tribes such asGepids,Huns,Avars, Goths andBulgars.[citation needed] The original inhabitants of present-day Slovenia and continental Croatia have origins in early Slavic tribes who mixed with Romans and romanized Celtic and Illyrian people as well as with Avars and Germanic peoples (Lombards and East Goths). The South Slavs (except the Slovenes and Croats) came under the cultural sphere of theEastern Roman Empire (Byzantine Empire), of theOttoman Empire and of theEastern Orthodox Church andIslam, while the Slovenes and the Croats were influenced by theWestern Roman Empire (Latin) and thus by theCatholic Church in a similar fashion to that of the West Slavs.[citation needed]
Consistent with the proximity of their languages, analyses ofY chromosomes,mDNA, andautosomal marker CCR5de132 shows thatEast Slavs andWest Slavs are genetically very similar, but demonstrating significant differences from neighboring Finno-Ugric,Turkic, and North Caucasian peoples. Such genetic homogeneity is somewhat unusual, given such a wide dispersal of Slavic populations.[63][64] Together they form the basis of the "East European"gene cluster, which also includes non-SlavicHungarians andAromanians.[63][65]
Global distribution of theR1a haplogroup, which is the most frequently found haplogroup among the Slavic peoples of Europe
The 2006 Y-DNA study results "suggest that the Slavic expansion started from the territory of present-day Ukraine, thus supporting the hypothesis placing the earliest known homeland of Slavs in the basin of the middleDnieper".[68] According to genetic studies until 2020, the distribution, variance and frequency of theY-DNA haplogroupsR1a andI2 and their subclades R-M558, R-M458 and I-CTS10228 amongSouth Slavs correlate with the spread of Slavic languages during the medieval Slavic expansion from Eastern Europe, most probably from the territory of present-day Ukraine andSoutheastern Poland.[69][70][71][72][73][74][75]
According to a 2017 study, Slavic speakers like Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians have similar genetic components. Ukrainians and Belarusians have near-equal amounts of two "European components", which are commonly found in North Europe and Caucasus respectively. There is also no evidence of Asian admixture. However, samples ofNovosibirsk residents andOld Believers in Siberia have 5-10% Central Siberian ancestry despite being genetically close to European Slavs.[76]
Thepagan Slavic populationswere Christianized between the 7th and 12th centuries.Orthodox Christianity is predominant among East and South Slavs, whileCatholicism is predominant among West Slavs and some westernSouth Slavs. The religious borders are largely comparable to theEast–West Schism which began in the 11th century. Islam first arrived in the 7th century during theearly Muslim conquests, and was gradually adopted by a number of Slavic ethnic groups through the centuries in the Balkans.[citation needed]
Among Slavic populations who profess a religion, the majority of contemporary Christian Slavs are Orthodox, followed by Catholic. The majority of Muslim Slavs follow theHanafi school of theSunni branch of Islam.[77] Religious delineations by nationality can be very sharp; usually in the Slavic ethnic groups, the vast majority of religious people share the same religion.[citation needed]
Throughout their history, Slavs came into contact with non-Slavic groups. In the postulated homeland region (present-dayUkraine), they had contacts with the IranianSarmatians and the GermanicGoths. After their subsequent spread, the Slavs began assimilating non-Slavic peoples. For example, in the Northern Black Sea region, the Slavs assimilated the remnants of the Goths.[86] In the Balkans, there werePaleo-Balkan peoples, such as Romanized andHellenized (Jireček Line)Illyrians,Thracians andDacians, as well asGreeks andCelticScordisci andSerdi.[87] Because Slavs were so numerous, most indigenous populations of the Balkans were Slavicized. Thracians and Illyrians mixed as ethnic groups in this period.
A notable exception is Greece, whereSlavs were Hellenized becauseGreeks were more numerous, especially with more Greeks returning to Greece in the 9th century and the influence of the church and administration,[88] however, Slavicized regions withinMacedonia,Thrace andMoesia Inferior also had a larger portion of locals compared to migrating Slavs.[89] Other notable exceptions are the territory of present-dayRomania andHungary, where Slavs settled en route to present-day Greece, North Macedonia, Bulgaria andEast Thrace but assimilated, and the modernAlbanian nation which claims descent from Illyrians and other Balkan tribes.[citation needed]
The status of theBulgars as a ruling class and their control of the land nominally left their legacy in theBulgarian country and people, but Bulgars were gradually also Slavicized into the present-day South Slavic ethnic group known asBulgarians. TheRomance speakers withinthe fortified Dalmatian cities retained their culture and language for a long time.[90] Dalmatian Romance was spoken until the high Middle Ages, but, they too were eventually assimilated into the body of Slavs.[91]
In the Western Balkans, South Slavs and GermanicGepids intermarried with invaders, eventually producing a Slavicized population.[citation needed] In Central Europe, the West Slavs intermixed withGermanic,Hungarian, andCeltic peoples, while in Eastern Europe the East Slavs had encounteredFinnic andScandinavian peoples. Scandinavians (Varangians) and Finnic peoples were involved in theearly formation of the Rus' state but were completely Slavicized after a century. SomeFinno-Ugric tribes in the north were also absorbed into the expanding Rus population.[66] In the 11th and 12th centuries, constant incursions by nomadicTurkic tribes, such as theKipchak and thePecheneg, caused a massive migration of East Slavic populations to the safer, heavily forested regions of the north.[92] In the Middle Ages, groups ofSaxon ore miners settled in medievalBosnia,Serbia andBulgaria, where they were Slavicized.[citation needed]
Map showingSlavic raids on Scandinavia in the mid-12th century
Cossacks, although Slavic and practicingOrthodox Christianity, came from a mix of ethnic backgrounds, includingTatars and other peoples.[citation needed] TheGorals of southernPoland and northernSlovakia are partially descended from the originally Balkan Romance speakingVlachs, who migrated into the region from the 14th to 17th centuries and were quickly absorbed into the local population, especially since the majority of Vlachs were alreadyslavicized and the term became synonymous with Ruthenians. The populations ofMoravian Wallachia,Carpathian Ruthenia and parts of northern Slovakia are also descended partially from the Vlachs.[99][100][101] Conversely, some Slavs were assimilated into other populations. Although the majority continued towards Southeast Europe, attracted by the riches of the area that became the state of Bulgaria, a few remained in the Carpathian Basin in Central Europe and were assimilated into theMagyar people. Numerous rivers and places inRomania have a name with Slavic origins.[102]
^Originally Eastern Orthodox, with some groups adoptingByzantine-Rite Catholicism under Polish and Austro-Hungarian rule and reverting to Eastern Orthodoxy starting in the late 19th Century.[citation needed]
^Including 16,000 single ethnic identity, 216,000 multiple ethnic identity Polish and Kashubian, 1,000 multiple ethnic identity Kashubian and another in Poland.[107]
^Živković, Tibor; Crnčević, Dejan; Bulić, Dejan; Petrović, Vladeta; Cvijanović, Irena; Radovanović, Bojana (2013).The World of the Slavs: Studies of the East, West and South Slavs: Civitas, Oppidas, Villas and Archeological Evidence (7th to 11th Centuries AD). Belgrade: Istorijski institut.ISBN978-86-7743-104-4.
^Željko Rapanić; (2013) O početcima i nastajanju Dubrovnika (The origin and formation of Dubrovnik. additional considerations) p. 94; Starohrvatska prosvjeta, Vol. III No. 40,[1]
^Rudnytskyi, Omelian et al. “The 1921–1923 Famine and the Holodomor of 1932–1933 in Ukraine: Common and Distinctive Features.”Nationalities Papers 48.3 (2020): 549–568. Web.
^J.P. Mallory and D.Q. Adams,The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European and the Proto-Indo-European World (2006), pp. 25–26.
^"Russian".University of Toronto. Retrieved26 March 2022.Russian is the most widespread of the Slavic languages and the largest native language in Europe.
^A. Zupan; et al. (2013)."The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations".Annals of Human Biology.40 (6):515–526.doi:10.3109/03014460.2013.813584.PMID23879710.S2CID34621779.However, a study by Battaglia et al. (2009) showed a variance peak for I2a1 in the Ukraine and, based on the observed pattern of variation, it could be suggested that at least part of the I2a1 haplogroup could have arrived in the Balkans and Slovenia with the Slavic migrations from a homeland in present-day Ukraine... The calculated age of this specific haplogroup together with the variation peak detected in the suggested Slavic homeland could represent a signal of Slavic migration arising from medieval Slavic expansions. However, the strong genetic barrier around the area of Bosnia and Herzegovina, associated with the high frequency of the I2a1b-M423 haplogroup, could also be a consequence of a Paleolithic genetic signal of a Balkan refuge area, followed by mixing with a medieval Slavic signal from modern-day Ukraine.
^Underhill, Peter A. (2015), "The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a",European Journal of Human Genetics,23 (1):124–131,doi:10.1038/ejhg.2014.50,PMC4266736,PMID24667786,R1a-M458 exceeds 20% in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, and Western Belarus. The lineage averages 11–15% across Russia and Ukraine and occurs at 7% or less elsewhere (Figure 2d). Unlike hg R1a-M458, the R1a-M558 clade is also common in the Volga-Uralic populations. R1a-M558 occurs at 10–33% in parts of Russia, exceeds 26% in Poland and Western Belarus, and varies between 10 and 23% in the Ukraine, whereas it drops 10-fold lower in Western Europe. In general, both R1a-M458 and R1a-M558 occur at low but informative frequencies in Balkan populations with known Slavonic heritage.
^Pamjav, Horolma; Fehér, Tibor; Németh, Endre; Koppány Csáji, László (2019).Genetika és őstörténet (in Hungarian). Napkút Kiadó. p. 58.ISBN978-963-263-855-3.Az I2-CTS10228 (köznevén "dinári-kárpáti") alcsoport legkorábbi közös őse 2200 évvel ezelőttre tehető, így esetében nem arról van szó, hogy a mezolit népesség Kelet-Európában ilyen mértékben fennmaradt volna, hanem arról, hogy egy, a mezolit csoportoktól származó szűk család az európai vaskorban sikeresen integrálódott egy olyan társadalomba, amely hamarosan erőteljes demográfiai expanzióba kezdett. Ez is mutatja, hogy nem feltétlenül népek, mintsem családok sikerével, nemzetségek elterjedésével is számolnunk kell, és ezt a jelenlegi etnikai identitással összefüggésbe hozni lehetetlen. A csoport elterjedése alapján valószínűsíthető, hogy a szláv népek migrációjában vett részt, így válva az R1a-t követően a második legdominánsabb csoporttá a mai Kelet-Európában. Nyugat-Európából viszont teljes mértékben hiányzik, kivéve a kora középkorban szláv nyelvet beszélő keletnémet területeket.
^Fóthi, E.; Gonzalez, A.; Fehér, T.; et al. (2020), "Genetic analysis of male Hungarian Conquerors: European and Asian paternal lineages of the conquering Hungarian tribes",Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences,12 (1): 31,Bibcode:2020ArAnS..12...31F,doi:10.1007/s12520-019-00996-0,Based on SNP analysis, the CTS10228 group is 2200 ± 300 years old. The group's demographic expansion may have begun in Southeast Poland around that time, as carriers of the oldest subgroup are found there today. The group cannot solely be tied to the Slavs, because the proto-Slavic period was later, around 300–500 CE... The SNP-based age of the Eastern European CTS10228 branch is 2200 ± 300 years old. The carriers of the most ancient subgroup live in Southeast Poland, and it is likely that the rapid demographic expansion which brought the marker to other regions in Europe began there. The largest demographic explosion occurred in the Balkans, where the subgroup is dominant in 50.5% of Croatians, 30.1% of Serbs, 31.4% of Montenegrins, and in about 20% of Albanians and Greeks. As a result, this subgroup is often called Dinaric. It is interesting that while it is dominant among modern Balkan peoples, this subgroup has not been present yet during the Roman period, as it is almost absent in Italy as well (see Online Resource 5; ESM_5).
^Kushniarevich, Alena; Kassian, Alexei (2020),"Genetics and Slavic languages", in Marc L. Greenberg (ed.),Encyclopedia of Slavic Languages and Linguistics Online, Brill,doi:10.1163/2589-6229_ESLO_COM_032367, retrieved10 December 2020,The geographic distributions of the major eastern European NRY haplogroups (R1a-Z282, I2a-P37) overlap with the area occupied by the present-day Slavs to a great extent, and it might be tempting to consider both haplogroups as Slavic-specic patrilineal lineages
^Goldblatt, Harvey (December 1986). "Orthodox Slavic Heritage and National Consciousness: Aspects of the East Slavic and South Slavic National Revivals".Harvard Ukrainian Studies.10 (3/4). Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute:336–354.JSTOR41036261.
^Zdravkovski, Aleksander; Morrison, Kenneth (January 2014). "The Orthodox Churches of Macedonia and Montenegro: The Quest for Autocephaly".Religion and Politics in Post-Socialist Central and Southeastern Europe. pp. 240–262.doi:10.1057/9781137330727_10.ISBN978-1-349-46120-2.
^The Cambridge Ancient History, Volume 3, Part 2: The Assyrian and Babylonian Empires and Other States of the Near East, from the Eighth to the Sixth Centuries BC by John Boardman, I. E. S. Edwards, E. Sollberger, and N. G. L. Hammond,ISBN0-521-22717-8, 1992, page 600: "In the place of the vanished Treres and Tilataei we find the Serdi for whom there is no evidence before the first century BC. It has for long being supposed on convincing linguistic and archeological grounds that this tribe was of Celtic origin."
^Florin Curta's An ironic smile: the Carpathian Mountains and the migration of the Slavs, Studia mediaevalia Europaea et orientalia. Miscellanea in honorem professoris emeriti Victor Spinei oblata, edited by George Bilavschi and Dan Aparaschivei, 47–72. Bucharest: Editura Academiei Române, 2018.
^Magocsi, Paul Robert (2015).With their backs to the mountains: a history of Carpathian Rus' and Carpatho-Rusyns. Budapest: Central European University Press.ISBN978-615-5053-46-7.
^abcdefghGłówny Urząd Statystyczny (January 2013).Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno-społeczna [Narodowy Spis Powszechny Ludności i Mieszkań 2011](PDF) (in Polish). Główny Urząd Statystyczny. pp. 89–101. Retrieved12 December 2014.
^This number is derived from the 2022 total population estimate of 3,816,459, multiplied by 0.501 based on the 2013 50.1% Bosniak share estimate. It is not certain that the Bosniak share was still 50.1% in 2022. TheFactbook notes: "Republika Srpska authorities dispute the methodology and refuse to recognize the results.""Bosnia and Herzegovina - the World Factbook". 18 August 2022.
^Kolev, Yordan, Българите извън България 1878 – 1945, 2005, р. 18 Quote:"В началото на XXI в. общият брой на етническите българи в България и зад граница се изчислява на около 10 милиона души./At the beginning of the 21st century, the total number of ethnic Bulgarians in Bulgaria and abroad was estimated at about 10 million people."
^"Hrvatski Svjetski Kongres". Archived fromthe original on 23 June 2003. Retrieved1 June 2016., Croatian World Congress, "4.5 million Croats and people of Croatian heritage live outside of the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina"
^An estimated 57.3% ethnic Czechs (2021) on an estimated 10,705,384 total population (2022) makes about 6.1 million. However, 31.6% was unspecified, so this may be far off the real figure."Czech Republic". CIA - The World Factbook. Retrieved16 August 2022.
^"Program političke stranke GIG".Do Nato intervencije na Srbiju, 24.03.1999.godine, u Gori je živelo oko 18.000 Goranaca. U Srbiji i bivšim jugoslovenskim republikama nalazi se oko 40.000 Goranaca, a značajan broj Goranaca živi i radi u zemljama Evropske unije i u drugim zemljama. Po našim procenama ukupan broj Goranaca, u Gori u Srbiji i u rasejanju iznosi oko 60.000.
^Topolinjska, Z. (1998), "In place of a foreword: facts about the Republic of Macedonia and the Macedonian language",International Journal of the Sociology of Language (131):1–11,doi:10.1515/ijsl.1998.131.1,S2CID143257269
^Including 36,522,000 single declared ethnic identity, 871,000 multiple declared ethnic identities (Polish and another ethnic identity, especially 431,000 Polish and Silesian, 216,000 Polish and Kashubian and 224,000 Polish and another identity)."Przynależność narodowo-etniczna ludności – wyniki spisu ludności i mieszkań 2011"(PDF).stat.gov.pl. 29 January 2013. Retrieved16 August 2022.
^Poulton, Hugh (1995).Who are the Macedonians?. C. Hurst & Co. Publishers. p. 167.ISBN1-85065-238-4.As often occurs with Yugoslav sources, there appears to be confusion about the numbers as there is about the numbers of Macedonians in Greek Macedonia at present: some Yugoslav sources put the latter figure at 350,000 but more sober estimates put it at 150–200,000.
^"Greece". State.gov. 4 March 2002. Retrieved4 September 2015.
^"Základné údaje zo sčítania obyvateľov, domov a bytov 2011" [Basic data from the 2011 Census of Population, Houses and Apartments](PDF).statistics.sk (in Slovak). Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic. July 2012. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 14 November 2012. Retrieved18 August 2022.
Brather, Sebastian (2008).Archäologie der westlichen Slawen. Siedlung, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft im früh- und hochmittelalterlichen Ostmitteleuropa [Archaeology of the Western Slavs. Settlement, economy and society in early and high medieval East-Central Europe] (in German) (2 ed.). Berlin, New York: de Gruyter.ISBN978-3-11-020609-8.
Verbenko, Dmitry A.; et al. (2005). "Variability of the 3'ApoB Minisatellite Locus in Eastern Slavonic Populations".Human Heredity.60 (1):10–18.doi:10.1159/000087338.PMID16103681.S2CID8926871.
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