Ethnicity, Language, & Religion of Croatia
Ethnicity
Nearly everyone living in Croatia claims to be an ethnic Croat or Croatian. In much smaller numbers, there are also Serbs, Bosniaks, and to a lesser extent Slovenes, Hungarians, and Italians. From a genetic standpoint, the Croats, Serbs, and Bosniaks are nearly identical, however each group claims they are different ethnic groups; an argument primarily based on religious, cultural, and political differences rather than on genetics. The Croats, as well as the Serbs and Bosniaks, are a southern Slavic group and their closest ethnic relatives are the other Southern Slavic groups, including each other, the Slovenes, and the Bulgarians among smaller groups.
Language
Croatian is the official language in Croatia and, like the ethnic divides, nearly all of the minority Serbs and Bosniaks speak "Serbian" or "Bosnian" both of which are languages that are arguably identical to Croatian (commonly called Serbo-Croatian in English). The Croats write their language in the Latin script, while the Serbs prefer using the Cyrillic script. This language, which is known by many names, is a south Slavic language and is also related to Slovene and Bulgarian among others.