Croats of Serbia
| 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, Serbs, other South Slavs | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 47,033 | |
| Languages | |
| Croatian | |
| Religion | |
| Roman Catholicism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Bunjevci, Šokci, other South Slavs |
Croats of Serbia or Serbian Croats (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. They were recognized as national minority in 2002. According to the 2011 census, there were 57,900 Croats in Serbia or 0.8% of the population. Some 54,785 of them lived in Vojvodina and Belgrade (constituting 2.4% of the population of the province Vojvodina and the fourth largest ethnic group in that region) and remaining 3,115 in 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 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.
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Wikipedia