page_title: Serbo-Croatian
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Serbo-Croatian / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: Official language Serbia (as Serbian) Croatia (as Croatian) Bosnia and Herzegovina (as Bosnian, Croatian, Serbian) Montenegro (as Montenegrin) Kosovo (as Serbian) Mount Athos (as Serbian) Recognised as minority language Austria (as Croatian) Hungary (as Serbian and Croatian) Italy (as Croatian) Romania (as Serbian and Croatian) Slovakia (as Serbian) Czech Republic (as Serbian) Macedonia (as Serbian) . Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски: Službeni jezik Srbija (kao Srpski) Hrvatska (kao Hrvatski)&#160; Bosna i Hercegovina (kao Bosanski, Hrvatski, Srpski) Crna Gora (kao Crnogorski) Kosovo (kao Srpski) Sveta Gora (kao Srpski) Priznat manjinski jezik Austrija (kao Hrvatski) Mađarska (kao Srpski i Hrvatski jezik) Italija (kao Hrvatski) Rumunjska (kao Srpski i Hrvatski jezik) Slovačka (kao Srpski) Češka (kao Srpski) Makedonija (kao Srpski) .
context_page_description: Serbo-Croatian – also called Serbo-Croat, Serbo-Croat-Bosnian, Bosnian-Croatian-Serbian, and Bosnian-Croatian-Montenegrin-Serbian – is a South Slavic language and the primary language of Serbia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Montenegro. It is a pluricentric language with four mutually intelligible standard varieties, namely Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Montenegrin.
  South Slavic languages historically formed a continuum. The turbulent history of the area, particularly due to expansion of the Ottoman Empire, resulted in a patchwork of dialectal and religious differences. Due to population migrations, Shtokavian became the most widespread language in the western Balkans, intruding westwards into the area previously occupied by Chakavian and Kajkavian. Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs differ in religion and were historically often part of different cultural circles, although a large part of the nations have lived side by side under foreign overlords. During that period, the language was referred to under a variety of names, such as "Slavic" in general or "Serbian", "Croatian" or "Bosnian" in particular. In a classicizing manner, it was also referred to as "Illyrian".
context_section_description: The total number of persons who declared their native language as either 'Bosnian', 'Croatian', 'Serbian', 'Montenegrin', or 'Serbo-Croatian' in countries of the region is about 16 million.
  Serbian is spoken by about 9.5 million, mostly in Serbia (6.7m), Bosnia and Herzegovina (1.4m), and Montenegro (0.4m). Serbian minorities are found in North Macedonia and in Romania. In Serbia, there are about 760,000 second-language speakers of Serbian, including Hungarians in Vojvodina and the 400,000 estimated Roma. Familiarity of Kosovo Albanians with Serbian in Kosovo varies depending on age and education, and exact numbers are not available.
  Croatian is spoken by roughly 4.8 million, including some 575,000 in Bosnia and Herzegovina. A small Croatian minority that lives in Italy, known as Molise Croats, have somewhat preserved traces of the Croatian language. In Croatia, 170,000, mostly Italians and Hungarians, use it as a second language.
  Bosnian is spoken by 2.2 million people, chiefly Bosniaks, including about 220,000 in Serbia and Montenegro.
  The notion of Montenegrin as a separate standard from Serbian is relatively recent. In the 2003 census, around 150,000 Montenegrins, of the country's 620,000, declared Montenegrin as their native language. That figure is likely to increase, due to the country's independence and strong institutional backing of the Montenegrin language.
  Serbo-Croatian is also a second language of many Slovenians and Macedonians, especially those born during the time of Yugoslavia. According to the 2002 Census, Serbo-Croatian and its variants have the largest number of speakers of the minority languages in Slovenia.
  Outside the Balkans, there are over 2 million native speakers of the language(s), especially in countries which are frequent targets of immigration, such as Australia, Austria, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Sweden, and the United States.
caption:   Countries where a standard form of Serbo-Croatian is an official language.   Countries where one or more forms are designated as a minority languages.
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