Editing Istria (section)

===Ethnicity===
{{Further|Istrian Italians}}
[[File:Istria census 1910.PNG|thumb|right|Percentage of people who used Italian as a "language of daily use" in Istria ([[Istrian Italians]]) in 1910<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=reDuBgAAQBAJ&pg=PA52|title=Mapping Jewish Loyalties in Interwar Slovakia|first=Rebekah|last=Klein-Pejšová|date=12 February 2015|publisher=Indiana University Press|isbn=9780253015624|access-date=4 May 2018|via=Google Books}}</ref>]]
[[File:Istria italiani 2001.png|thumb|right|Distribution by municipality of native Italian speakers in the [[Croatian Istria]] in 2001]]

There are some claims, [[Istrian Italians]] were more than 50% of the total population of Istria for centuries,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.iemed.org/publication/istrian-spring/|title=Istrian Spring|access-date=24 October 2022}}</ref> while making up about a third of the population in 1900.<ref>{{Cite EB1911|wstitle= Istria | volume= 14 | pages = 886&ndash;887 |short= 1}}</ref> With its strategic position at the southern tip of the peninsula and good harbor Pula was the primary base of the Austrian Navy.

A limited tension with the Austrian state did not in fact stop the rise of the use of the Italian language, in the second part of the 19th century, when the population of predominantly Italian-speaking towns in Istria had a significant rise: in the part of Istria that eventually became part of Croatia, the first Austrian census from 1846 found 34 thousand Italian speakers, alongside 120 thousand Croatian speakers (in the Austrian censuses, the ethnic composition of the population was not surveyed, only the main "language of use" of a person). By 1910, the proportion changed significantly: there were 108 thousand Italian speakers and 134 thousand Croatian speakers.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Žerjavić|first=Vladimir|title=DOSELJAVANJA I ISELJAVANJA S PODRUČJA ISTRE, RIJEKE I ZADRA U RAZDOBLJU 1910-1971.|journal= Journal of Modern Italian Studies|year=2008|volume=13|issue=2 |pages=237–258|url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/clanak/52845}}</ref> Vanni D'Alessio notes (2008), the Austrian surveys of the language of use "overestimated the diffusion of the socially dominant languages of the empire...  The capacity of assimilation of the Italian language suggests that amongst those who declared themselves Italian speakers in Istria, there were people whose mother tongue was different." D'Alessio notes even members of the Austrian state bureaucracy and the members of their families with the German mother tongue tended to use Italian, after living in Istrian small towns long enough. The Poles, Czechs and Slovenes and Croats tended to join the "Slav" social group.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=D'Alessio|first=Vanni|title=From Central Europe to the northern Adriatic: Habsburg citizens between Italians and Croats in Istria|journal=Journal of Modern Italian Studies |year=2008|volume=13|issue=2 |pages=237–258|doi=10.1080/13545710802010990 |s2cid=145797119 | url=https://www.academia.edu/1265458}}</ref>

Discussions about Istrian ethnicity often use the words "Italian", "Croatian", and "Slovene" to describe the character of the Istrian people. However these terms are best understood as "national affiliations" that may exist in combination with or independently of linguistic, cultural and historical attributes. In the Istrian context, for example, the word "Italian" can just as easily refer to [[autochthonous language|autochthonous]] speakers of the [[Venetian language]] whose antecedents in the region extend before the inception of the [[Venetian Republic]] or to the [[Istriot language]] the oldest spoken language in Istria, dated back to the Romans, today spoken in the southwest of Istria. It can also refer to Istrian Croats who adopted the veneer of [[Italian culture]] as they moved from rural to urban areas, or from the farms into the bourgeoisie.

Similarly, national powers claim Istrian Croats according to local language, so that speakers of [[Chakavian dialect|Čakavian]] and [[Shtokavian dialect|Štokavian]] dialects of [[Croatian language|Croatian]] are considered to be Croatians while speakers of other dialects may be considered to be Slovene. As with other regions, the local dialects of the Croatian communities vary greatly across close distances. The Istrian Croatian and Italian vernaculars had both developed for many generations before being divided as they are today. This meant that Croats/Slovenes on the one side and Venetians/other Italians on the other side yielded to each other culturally while simultaneously distancing themselves from members of their ethnic groups living farther away.

Another important Istrian community are the [[Istro-Romanians]] in the south and north of the Učka mountain range of Istria. A small [[Albanians|Albanian]] community, which until the late 19th century spoke the [[Istrian Albanian]] dialect is also present in the peninsula.

====Austro-Hungarian census====
According to Austro-Hungarian censuses, which recorded language instead of ethnicity, the composition of Istria (i.e. the [[March of Istria#Habsburg Margraviate|Habsburg Margraviate of Istria)]] was as follows (in thousands):

{| class="wikitable" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; border: none;"
|-
!Language
! 1846<ref name="ISTRE">{{Cite journal |last=Žerjavić |first=Vladimir |date=1993-07-01 |title=DOSELJAVANJA I ISELJAVANJA S PODRUČJA ISTRE, RIJEKE I ZADRA U RAZDOBLJU 1910-1971. |url=https://hrcak.srce.hr/33185 |journal=Društvena istraživanja: časopis za opća društvena pitanja |language=hr |volume=2 |issue=4-5 (6-7) |pages=649 |issn=1330-0288}}</ref>
! 1890<ref name="ISTRE" />
! 1910<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |title=Spezialortsrepertorium der österreichischen Länder I-XII, Wien, 1915–1919 |access-date=2020-04-20 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130529164005/http://www.omm1910.hu/?%2Fde%2Fdatenbank |archive-date=2013-05-29 |url-status=dead}}</ref>
|-
| Croatian || 122 (56.7%)|| 123 (42.4%) || 168 (43.5%)
|-
| Italian || 59 (27.4%)|| 111 (38.3%) || 148 (38.1%) 
|-
| Slovenian || 32 (14.9%)|| 41 (14.1%) || 55 (14.3%)
|-
| German || n.a.|| 15  (5.2%) || 13 (3.3%)
|}