Geographic Distribution and Population
Italian is co-official with Slovene in three municipalities in the Slovenian portion of Istria: Piran (Italian: Pirano), Koper (Italian: Capodistria) and Izola (Italian: Isola d'Istria). The official census, carried out in 2002, reported 2,258 ethnic Italians in the country (0.11% of the total population). However, 3,762 people (0.2% of the total population and a slight dip from the number in the 1991 census) reported themselves to be mother tongue speakers of the language, of whom 1,832 declared themselves as being ethnic Italian, 1,195 as ethnic Slovenes, 34 as Croats, and 37 belonged to an ethnicity that was not listed.
Of the total 3,762 Italian native speakers in Slovenia, 2,853 live in one of the three municipalities where it is co-official: 1,174 in Piran, 1,059 in Koper, and 620 in Izola. Around 15% of all Slovenians speak Italian as a second language, which is the highest percentage in the European Union after Malta. An estimated 5% of Slovenians use Italian in their daily life, which is the highest percentage in the European Union outside Italy. The vast majority of those live in the Slovenian Littoral, where daily economic and personal contacts with neighboring Italy are common.
Read more about this topic: Italian Language In Slovenia
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