Languages of Croatia
Map of municipalities with official minority languages
Minority	Serbian Italian Hungarian Czech Slovak Rusyn Ukrainian Romani(non-territorial protection) German(non-territorial protection) Slovene(non-territorial protection)

TheConstitution of Croatia in itspreamble definesCroatia as anation state of ethnicCroats, a country of traditionally presentcommunities that the constitution recognizes asnational minorities and a country of all itscitizens. National minorities explicitly enumerated and recognized in the Constitution areSerbs,Czechs,Slovaks,Italians,Hungarians,Jews,Germans,Austrians,Ukrainians,Rusyns,Bosniaks,Slovenes,Montenegrins,Macedonians,Russians,Bulgarians,Poles,Romani,Romanians,Istro-Romanians ("Vlachs"),Turks andAlbanians. Article 12 of the constitution states that the official language in Croatia isCroatian, but also states that in some local governments another language andCyrillic or some other script can be introduced in official use.

The official use of minority languages is defined by relevantnational legislation andinternational conventions and agreements which Croatia signed. The most important national laws areConstitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities,Law on Use of Languages and Scripts of National Minorities and Law on Education in Language and Script of National Minorities. Relevant international agreements areEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages andFramework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities. Certain rights were achieved through bilateral agreements and international agreements such asTreaty of Osimo andErdut Agreement.

The required 33.3% of the minority population in certain local government units for obligatory introduction of official use of minority languages is considered high, taking into account thatThe Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities of theCouncil of Europe considers a threshold from 10% to 20% reasonable.^[1] Croatia does not always show favorable views on issues of minority rights butCroatian European Union accession process positively influenced public usage of minority languages.^[2]

Education in Serbian is primarily offered in the area of formerEastern Slavonia, Baranja and Western Syrmia based onErdut Agreement. With those school since 2005 there is alsoKantakuzina Katarina Branković Serbian Orthodox Secondary School inZagreb.

Serb National Council publish weekly magazineNovosti since December 1999. There are also monthly magazines Identitet, published bySerb Democratic Forum, Izvor, published byJoint Council of Municipalities, youth magazine Bijela Pčela and culture magazine Prosvjeta, both published byProsvjeta and Forum published by Serb National Council fromVukovar. There are also three local radio stations in Serbian in easternSlavonia such asRadio Borovo. Since 1996 Central library ofProsvjeta works as the official Central Library of Serbs in Croatia as well.^[3] Prosvjeta's library was established on 4 January 1948 and at that time it had 40,000 volumes mostly in national literature including most of the books from XVIII and XIX century.^[3] In 1953 authorities made a decision to close the library and to deposit its books inMuseum of Serbs of Croatia,National and University Library in Zagreb andYugoslav Academy of Sciences and Arts.^[3] Library was reestablished in January 1995 and until 2016 it included more than 25,000 volumes in its collection.^[3]

Department ofSouth Slavic languages at theFaculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at theUniversity of Zagreb has a The Chair ofSerbian andMontenegrin literature.^[4] Among the others, lecturers of Serbian literature at the university over the time wereAntun Barac,Đuro Šurmin andArmin Pavić.^[4]

In the first years after introduction of newConstitutional Act on the Rights of National Minorities some local governments resisted implementation of its legal obligations. In 2005 Ombudsman report, municipalities ofVojnić,Krnjak,Gvozd,Donji Kukuruzari,Dvor andKorenica were mentioned as those that do not allow the official use of Serbian, although the national minority in these places meets the threshold provided for in the Constitutional Act.^[5] The report pointed out that Serbian minority inVukovar can not use Serbian although minority constituted less than one percent less population than it was prescribed by law.^[5] After2011 Croatian censusSerbs of Vukovar meet the required proportion of population for co-official introduction of Serbian but it led toAnti-Cyrillic protests in Croatia. In April 2015United Nations Human Rights Committee urged Croatia to ensure the right of minorities to use their language and alphabet.^[6] Committee report stated that particularly concerns the use of Serbian Cyrillic in the town of Vukovar and municipalities concerned.^[6] The Constitutional Court of Croatia upheld the legislation on the use of minority languages. It relied on a newly developed concept of national identity.^[7]

TheItalian language is an official minority language in Croatia, with many schools and public announcements published in both languages. Croatia's proximity and cultural connections to Italy have led to a relatively large presence ofItalians in Croatia. Italians were recognized as a state minority in the Croatian Constitution in two sections:Istrian Italians andDalmatian Italians. Their numbers drastically decreased following theIstrian–Dalmatian exodus (1943–1960).

Italian minority has realized much greater rights on bilingualism than other minority communities in Croatia.^[5]La Voce del Popolo is anItalian-language daily newspaper published by EDIT (EDizioni ITaliane) in the city ofRijeka. Central Library of Italians in Croatia operates as a section of Public library inPula.^[8]

Even though today only 0.43% of the total population is Italian by citizenship, many more areethnically Italian and a large percentage of Croatians speak Italian, in addition toCroatian. An estimated 14% of Croats speak Italian as asecond language, which is one of the highest percentages in theEuropean Union.^[9]

In 2004, the Hungarian minority asked for introduction of Hungarian language in town ofBeli Manastir as an official language, referring to the rights acquired prior to 1991.^[5] Hungarian minority at that time constituted 8,5% of town population.^[5] Central Library of Hungarians in Croatia operates as a section of Public library in Beli Manastir.^[8]

6,287 declared Czechs live inBjelovar-Bilogora County.^[10] 70% of them stated that their native language is Czech.^[10] Ambassador ofCzech Republic inCroatia stated that intention to limit usage of Serbian Cyrillic would negatively affect Czechs and other minorities in Croatia.^[11] Central Library of Czechs in Croatia operates as a section of Public library inDaruvar.^[8] In an interview in 2011 Zdenka Čuhnil, MP for the Czech and Slovak minorities, stated that Czech minority, based on its acquired rights, have the legal right to use its language in 9 local units (municipalities or towns) while in practice usage of that right is enabled only in one unit and partially in one more.^[12] She also stated that in the case of Slovak minority out of 6 units (5 based on acquired rights and one on the basis of proportionality) is free to use its rights only in one.^[12]

In 2011 there was 11 elementary schools in which students from Slovak minority were able to learn Slovak.^[13] Those schools were located inIlok,Osijek,Soljani,Josipovac Punitovački,Markovac Našički,Jelisavac,Miljevci,Zdenci,Lipovljani andMeđurić.^[13] Gymnasium in Požega was the first high school in Croatia to introduce Slovak-language education into its elective curriculum.^[14]Union of Slovaks in cooperation with theSlovak Cultural Center inNašice publish the magazinePrameň inSlovak.^[15] On the 200th anniversary of birth ofŠtefan Moyses in 1997 Croatian branch ofMatica slovenská set a bilingual memorial plate at the building of the Gornji Grad Gymnasium inZagreb.^[16] In 2003 second bilingual plate commemorating the work ofMartin Kukučín was set up inLipik.^[16] Matica slovenská in Zagreb published more than 10 books in Slovak over the years.^[16] In 1998 Central Library of Slovaks in Croatia was established as a section of Public library in Našice and as of 2016 its users had access to more than 4,000 volumes.^[17]

Central Library of Rusyns and Ukrainians in Croatia operates as a section of Public libraries inZagreb.^[8] Library was established on 9 December 1995 and today part of its collection is accessible in public libraries inVinkovci,Lipovljani,Slavonski Brod,Vukovar andPetrovci.^[18]

Central Library of Austrians and Germans in Croatia operates as a section of Public library inOsijek.^[8]

OrganisationZagreb Yiddish Circle is club that organizes courses inYiddish, lectures onJewish history, linguistics and culture, movie nights, and hosts a Yiddish book club.^[19]

Ukrainian-language classes are held in four schools inLipovljani,Petrovci,Kaniža andŠumeće, attended by about 50 students.^[20] Central Library of Rusyns and Ukrainians in Croatia operates as a section of Public libraries inZagreb.^[8] Library was established on 9 December 1995 and today part of its collection is accessible in public libraries inVinkovci,Lipovljani,Slavonski Brod,Vukovar andPetrovci.^[18]

Croatia previously made a reservation to Article 7.5 of ratification byEuropean Charter for Regional or Minority Languages (ECRML), which excluded non-territorial languages such asRomani from the application of the Charter. In the first evaluation report of 2 December 2000, expert groups and the Secretariat of the ECRML have recommended thatRomani andBoyash Romanian be recognized as distinct minority languages used by the Roma.^[21] Croatian authorities are in the process of withdrawing the reservation.^[22]Veljko Kajtazi, Romani community MP in Croatia, stated that he will advocate to have theRoma language included on the list of minority languages in Croatia during his term in office.^[23]

Croatian Parliament formally recognisedRomani Language Day on May 25, 2012,^[23] which was on their initiative also proclaimed byUNESCO in 2015.^[24] At theFaculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb, two courses in the Romani language on the Romani language, literature, culture and history have been taught since November 5, 2012.^[21] Central Library of Roma in Croatia was established on 8 June 2020 in Zagreb, and is presently the only such library in Europe.^[25]

Istro-Romanian is one of the smallest minority languages spoken in Croatia with fewer than 500 speakers concentrated mainly in the north-eastern part of theIstrian Peninsula. While the language is not officially recognized in theConstitution of Croatia under that name (the Constitution references Romanians and "Vlachs"), it is specifically recognized as such in the Statute of the Istrian Region^[26] and in the Statute of the Municipality ofKršan.^[27] In 2016, with funding from the Romanian government, the school in the village ofŠušnjevica was fully renovated and is expected to start offering education in Istro-Romanian.^[28]

There are three other central libraries in Croatia. Bosniak's community central library is located in the town ofSisak, Albanian one inZagreb and Slovenian inKarlovac.^[8]

List of towns and municipalities with minority languages in official use:^[29]

DuringNapoleon I's invasion of Croatia in the early 19th century, a large portion was of the country was converted into theIllyrian Provinces (Provinces illyriennes) and incorporated as a French province in 1809.^[32] French rule established the official language of the autonomous province to beFrench followed byCroatian,Italian,German, andSlovene.^[33][34] According to France's Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, about 6% of Croatians are fluent in basic conversation in French.^[35]

European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages became a legally binding for Croatia in 1997.^[36]

• Minority language
• Languages of Croatia
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• Demographics of Croatia
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• Languages of Croatia
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• CS1 Serbian-language sources (sr)
• CS1 errors: missing periodical
• CS1 Croatian-language sources (hr)
• Articles with short description
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• Use dmy dates from September 2018