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From the 1994 Slovak statistics,
there were 5,356,207 people living in
Slovakia. Of that number, 4,672,527 were
of Slovak nationality. But there are
other Slovaks living around the world
that share the same ancestral home as the
Slovaks living in Slovakia.
There is no single number that can
be used in explaining the number of
Slovaks living outside of Slovakia or in
any one country. There are many reasons
that in other countries Slovaks were not
separated from other nationalities. The
enumeration used in different countries
considered emigrants coming from the
Austo-Hungarian and later Czecho-Slovakia
as Austrians, Hungarians, Czechoslovaks
or Slovak nationals. So what is the
number of Slovaks living beyond the
borders of present day Slovakia. The
number varies between 2 and 3 million
Slovaks, which would be almost as half
again as to the total number of Slovaks
living in Slovakia.
How do those numbers break down and
what is the history behind so many
Slovaks living abroad.
|
| Country |
Population
|
| Argentina |
35,000
|
| Australia and
New Zealand |
30,000
|
| Austria |
10,000
|
| Brazil |
3,000
|
| Bulgaria |
1,000
|
| Canada |
85,000
|
| Croatia |
4,760
|
| Czech Republic
|
314,877
|
| France |
20,000
|
| Germany |
10,000
|
| Great Britain |
1,000
|
| Holland |
20,000
|
| Hungary |
10,000
|
| Italy |
1,500
|
| Poland |
25,000
|
| Romania |
23,000
|
| South Africa |
10,000
|
| Sweden |
3,000
|
| Switzerland |
5,000
|
| Ukrainian |
25,000
|
| USA |
1,882,892
|
| Yugoslavia |
63,941
|
The total based on
these numbers (from Ustav Zahranicnich
Slovakov of Matica Slovenska) is over 2.5
Million Slovaks. In some countries, it is
very difficult to come close to the
actual number of Slovaks because the
official statistics do not reflect what
is believed to be a true picture. One
such country is Hungary which is believed
to have over 100,000 Slovaks living
within its borders, but only 10,000 we
accounted for in the last census.
Why did so many people leave what
is today Slovakia. That is a long story
and hopefully it and many of its
variations can be presented here in the
future. In the beginning it was because
of lack of available work or food and
later because of political reasons, but
they are all still Slovaks.
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