The Croatian diaspora ( or ) consists of ethnic Croat people, their descendants, and Croatian citizens living outside of Croatia. An excess of four million people are part of the Croatian diaspora. The nationality laws of Croatia affords citizenship by birth, ancestry, and naturalisation, growing the Croatian citizen population living abroad.
Estimates on its size are only approximate because of incomplete statistical records and naturalisation, but upper-level estimates suggest that the Croatian diaspora numbers between a third and a half of the total number of Croats. Within neighboring Southeast Europe, the largest community are with the Croats of Bosnia and Herzegovina, one of the constituent nations of that country, amounting to about 545,000. Outside of these two regions, broader Europe is home to around one million Croatians, with 1.7 million living overseas.
The largest diaspora community is in the United States at 1.2 million Croatian Americans, which significantly influence Croatia–United States relations. In Western Europe, the largest group is found in Germany with a reported 228,000 Croatian Germans , with some estimates including naturalized citizens as high as 500,000. There are significant numbers of the diaspora in the Indo-Pacific, mainly in Australia (165,000) and New Zealand (up to 100,000).
Statistics
Europe Eastern and Southeastern Europe 544,780 (2013) 39,107 (2021) 6,021 (2011) 4,842 (2021) Western and Central Europe 500,000 150,719Census 2001 "Tabelle 5: Bevölkerung nach Umgangssprache und Staatsangehörigkeit", page 60 "131,307 Croatians + 19,412 Burgenland Croats = 150,719. In the Austrian census, Burgenland Croats are separate from the main Croat group." 7,000 35,642 (2002) 24,000 (2018) 80,000 40,000 25,730Hungary census nepszamlalas.hu 60,000 10,000 (2001 UK Census) 1,656 464 (Croatian citizens only, excluding people with double citizenship) Northern Europe 40,000 5,400 3,909 470 (Croatian citizens)
Overseas Africa 8,000 North America 1,200,000 (2021)S0201. Selected Population Profile in the United States , Population Group: Croatian (109-110), Data Set: 2007 American Community Survey 1-Year Estimates, Survey: American Community Survey. 133,965 South America 250,000 5,000 70,000 400,000 4,000 41,502 195,000 5,000 5,000 Oceania 164,360 (2021) 2,550 - 100,000 (est.)
Distribution
United States
The United States has the largest Croatian diaspora outside of Croatia. Croatians in Detroit first appeared around 1890, settling usually in the region of Russel. Across Lake Erie, Croats formed one of the largest Croatian-American communities in Cleveland, which to this day remains the second largest concentration of Croats in America after Pittsburgh. At one point, the Croatian population in Cleveland rivaled Zagreb, as did the Slovenian and Hungarian populations in Cleveland rivaled Ljubliana and Budapest.
In Illinois the Croatians started concentrating mostly around Chicago. Although it was created a bit later, the Croatian settlement in Chicago became one of the most important ones in the United States. The settlement especially started developing after World War I and Chicago became the center of all Croatian cultural and political activities. It is calculated that there were roughly 50,000 Croats in Chicago in the 1990s, while there were altogether 100,000 Croats living in 54 additional Croatian settlements in Illinois. There is a significant Croat population also in Indianapolis that settled during the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. According to the 2005 U.S. Community Survey, there were 401,208 Americans of full or partial Croatian descent.S0201. Selected Population Profile in the United States , Population Group: Croatian (109-110), Data Set: 2005 American Community Survey, Survey: American Community Survey
Pittsburgh has a sizeable Croatian population. The headquarters of the Croatian Fraternal Union (CFU) - the oldest and largest Croatian organization in the United States - is located in the eastern suburb of Monroeville, PA, established in the 1880s. The CFU publishes a weekly newspaper, The Zajednicar Weekly, in both English and Croatian. Most of the Croatians in Pittsburgh originally settled in the early 1900s on the city's North Side. A neighborhood centered on East Ohio Street along the Allegheny River between Millvale and the North Shore was named Mala Jaska after an area in Croatia (northwest of Zagreb).
The broader Croatian American community participate in a variety of bilateral organizations seeking to strengthen the relationship between the U.S. and Croatia. The National Federation of Croatian Americans (NFCACF) was established in 1993 to advance the diaspora within the U.S. while the Association of Croatian American Professionals (ACAP) seeks to enhance joint economic synergy and public policy. Many regional societies and clubs exist in Washington, D.C., New York, California, and the Midwest.
Bosnia and Herzegovina
The relationship between Croatia's diasporic population and the native Croat of Bosnia and Herzegovina is complex. The Croat community in this region are native to Bosnia and Herzegovina, mostly speaking Croatian and identifying as Catholic. The geographical limits of land occupied by the Croat people and citizens of various Croatian states has changed significantly throughout history. The status of the Croat community within Bosnia and Herzegovina as a "diaspora" as opposed to a simple ethnic dispersion of Croats is debated in modern ethnographic research. Croatian nationality law affords citizenship to anyone living in Bosnia and Herzegovina of Croat descent, allowing for duel citizenship as well. This consequently has grown Croatian citizenry living abroad and led to large scale immigration to Croatia and the broader European Union.
The border between the two countries have changed drastically leading to ambiguity around the diasporic nature of Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Croatia is considered a nation state while the community in Bosnia and Herzegovina is considered a constituent nation of that country. They are frequently referred to as Bosnian Croats, but since the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina the number of Herzegovinian Croats exceeds the number in Bosnia. The Croats maintain an unofficial capital in Mostar, with the city being home to the largest Croatian population.Mostar municipality, 2013 census results, statistika.ba
There is no precise data regarding Bosnia and Herzegovina's population since the last war. The UNHCR conducted an unofficial census in 1996, but the data has not been recognized. Ethnic cleansing in the 1990s saw the vast majority of Croats resettle to Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This region directly borders the Croatian region of Dalmatia. It is estimated that there are approximately 600,000 Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina. According to 2000 data from the CIA World Factbook, Bosnia and Herzegovina is ethnically 14.3% Croat.CIA World Factbook: Bosnia and Herzegovina 14.3% of a total population of 4,613,414 (July 2009 not including "Refugees and internally displaced persons" because they put Bosnian Croats together with other types.
Canada
Croatians reportedly immigrated to Canada as early as 1541 when two Croatians from Dalmatia served on the crew of Jacques Cartier's third voyage to Canada. There are approximately 114,880 Canadians of Croatian ethnic origin as reported in the 2011 National Household Survey. The Croatian community is present in most major Canadian cities (including Toronto, Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg, Vancouver, Calgary, Windsor, and Montreal, as well as Mississauga and Oakville) in the form of designated Croatian churches, parks, and other organizations.
Notable Croatian Canadian organizations include the Croatian Fraternal Union, the Croatian Canadian Folklore Federation (Vancouver), and the Croatian Canadian Cultural Centre (Calgary). Some of the more popular Croatian Canadian events are the Croatian-North American Soccer Tournament and the Canadian-Croatian Folklore Festival. Croatian Canadians have had a notable presence in the form of soccer teams all around Canada, one of the most famous clubs was the now defunct Toronto Metros-Croatia, who are succeeded by Toronto Croatia.
Bolivia
Chile
Croats are an important ethnic group in Chile; they are citizens of Chile who were either born in Europe or are Chileans of Croatian descent deriving their Croatian ethnicity from one or both parents. Chile has one of the largest communities of ethnic Croats outside the Balkans Peninsula and it is one of the most significant communities in the Croatian diaspora – second only to that which is found in the United States. They are one of the main examples of successful assimilation of a non Spanish-speaking European ethnic group into Chilean society. Many successful entrepreneurs, scientists, artists and prominent politicians holding the highest offices in the country have been of Croatian descent.
The Croatian community first established itself in two provinces situated in the extreme ends of Chile: Antofagasta, in the Atacama desert of the north and Punta Arenas in the Patagonian region in the south. The massive arrival of Croats in Chile began in 1864 and the migration grew steadily until 1956 – reaching a number of more than 60,000.
It is officially accepted that there are up to 380,000 Chileans of Croatian descent (who clearly identify themselves as Chilean-Croats).
Argentina
Argentines of Croatian descent number over 250,000. The most successful of all the Croats in Argentina was also one of the first to arrive. Nikola Mihanović came to Montevideo, Uruguay in 1867. Having settled in Buenos Aires, by 1909 Mihanović owned 350 vessels of one kind or another, including 82 steamers, owning, in that time, the biggest boat company in Argentina. By 1918, he employed 5,000 people, mostly from his native Dalmatia which was then under Austro-Hungarian and Italian rule. Mihanović by himself was thus a major factor in building up a Croatian community which remains primarily Dalmatian to this day, although it contains people from other Croatian regions.
The second wave of Croat immigration was far more numerous, totalling 15,000 by 1939. Mostly peasants, these immigrants fanned out to work the land in Buenos Aires province, Santa Fe, Chaco and Patagonia. This wave was accompanied by a numerous clergy to attend their spiritual needs, especially Franciscans.
If the first two waves had been primarily economic, the third wave after the Second World War was eminently political. Some 20,000 Croatian political refugees came to Argentina, and most became construction workers on Peron's public works projects until they started to pick up some Spanish. Today, many descendants of the Croatian immigrants still know Croatian, although different than the modern-day Croatian language.
Paraguay The largest number of Croats arrived in Paraguay between 1860 and 1920. In those years, Croats emigrated mainly from the Dalmatian coast, predominantly from southern Dalmatia (islands and Boka Kotorska). Their main motivation for emigration was economic. The first Croat in Paraguay was Ivan the Baptist Marchesetti, a missionary of the Society of Jesus, a native of Rijeka, who served in the Jesuit missions in Paraguay from 1757 until his death in Paraguay (1767). Most of the Croats living in Paraguay are descended from these early immigrants. In the beginning, they were engaged in trade, pharmacy, small trades, mechanical works, gunsmiths, river navigation, rural jobs such as selling wood, construction, animal husbandry, professional jobs, etc.