The places where Croatian has official language status

Croatian has official language status in a number of places

The Croatian language is one of the most interesting languages with a rich history.  

There are many facts about the Croatian language which are interesting, like when it was first mentioned, which was in 1275 in the document “Istarski razvod”, and also where it has status of an official language. 

Croatian is the official language of Croatia, but it also has official language status in a number of other places. 

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatian is one of three official languages. The other two being Bosnian and Serbian.

The Croatian language also has official language status in the region of Burgenland in Austria. Around 50,000 people are believed to speak Burgenland Croatian. 

Burgenland Croatian written language is based mainly on the local Chakavian dialect with some influences from the other Croatian dialects spoken in Burgenland.

Croatian also has official language status in the region of Molise in Italy. There are believed to be around 2,000 passive speakers of Molise Croatian, which is a variety of Shtokavian Croatian. The community there originated from Dalmatian refugees fleeing from the Ottoman conquests in the late 15th and 16th centuries. 

Croatian also has official status in Vojvodina in Serbia where Croats are the one of the largest ethnic groups in the province. 

Since 2013, Croatian is also an official language of the European Union and it has co-official status alongside Romanian in the communes of Carașova and Lupac in Romania. 

In those localities, Croats or Krashovani make up the majority of the population, and education, signage and access to public administration and the justice system are provided in Croatian, alongside Romanian.

Learn about 15 more interesting facts about the Croatian language here.