Dalmatian Italians - Modern-day Presence in Dalmatia

Modern-day Presence in Dalmatia

The Dalmatian Italians were a fundamental presence in Dalmatia, when the process of political unification of the Italians, Croats and Serbs started at the beginning of the 19th century. The 1816 Austro-Hungarian census registered 66,000 Italian speaking people between the 301,000 inhabitants of Dalmatia, or 22% of the total Dalmatian population.

The main communities are located in the following coastal cities:

• in Croatia: Zadar, Split, Trogir, and Šibenik.
• in Montenegro: Kotor, Perast, and Budva.

Following the Italian emigration from Dalmatia and the events following World War II, the Dalmatian Italians communities were drastically reduced in their numbers. Today according to the official censi only a few hundred citizens in Croatia and Montenegro declared themselves of Italian ethnicity. It is claimed by the Italian Communities in Dalmatia that the official census of 2001 underestimates the real number of Italian Dalmatian because several Croatian citizen of Italian descendency might not declare their real ethnicty for various reasons. If it is difficult to assess if this claim is correct, but it has to be noticed that the Italian Community of Zadar counts currently around 500 members even if during the last census in 2001 in the entire Zadar county only 109 inhabitants declared to be of Italian ethnicity.