Istrian Exodus

The expression Istrian exodus or Istrian-Dalmatian exodus is used to indicate the departure of ethnic Italians from Istria, Rijeka, and Dalmatia (present-day Croatia), after World War II. At the time of the exodus, these territories were part of the SR Croatia and SR Slovenia (then parts of SFR Yugoslavia), today they are parts of the Republics of Croatia and Slovenia. The exodus was incited by the Yugoslav government to exclude future land claims, on the other hand Italian government offered some assistance for the population emigrating to Italy.

These territories were ethnically mixed, with Italian, Slovenian, Croatian, Serbian and other communities. Istria including Rijeka and parts of Dalmatia including Zadar, had been annexed to Italy after World War I. At the end of World War II the former Italian territories in Istria and Dalmatia became part of Yugoslavia by the Paris Peace Treaty (1947), with the only exception being the communes of Muggia and San Dorligo della Valle.

Italian sources consider that up to 250,000/350,000 ethnic Italians and (some thousand of) anti-communist Slovenes and Croats, left the areas in the aftermath of the conflict. In various municipalities in Croatia and Slovenia, census data shows that despite the efforts made by the Yugoslavian Government just after World War II to force the Italians to leave, there are still some Italians living in some cities of Istria, such as 51% of the population of Grožnjan, 37% at Brtonigla and 39.6% in Buje.