View source for Slovenes

{{Short description|South Slavic ethnic group}}
{{for|information on the population of Slovenia|Demographics of Slovenia}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2020}}
{{Infobox ethnic group
| group            = Slovenes<br /> ''Slovenci''
| image            = Slovenes of the Gail Thal, in Holiday Costume, Carinthia.jpg
| caption          = Slovene girls of the [[Gail Valley]] (''Ziljska dolina'') in holiday costume, [[Carinthia]] (1865)
| population       = '''{{circa|2.5}} million'''<ref name="Glasgow">{{cite web |url=http://zgs.zrc-sazu.si/Portals/8/Slo_Geo_Over/16.pdf |title=Ethnic Structure of Slovenia and Slovenes in Neighbouring Countries |work=Slovenia: a geographical overview |first=Jernej |last=Zupančič |publisher=Association of the Geographic Societies of Slovenia |date=August 2004 |access-date=10 April 2008}}</ref>
| popplace         = {{Flag|Slovenia}} 
{{circa}} 1,749,000 <ref name="Population">{{cite web |date=1 October 2023 |title=Population |url=https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/Field/index/17 |access-date=16 April 2024 |work=Statistični urad Republike Slovenije, October 2023 |publisher=Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region1          = {{flag|United States}}
| pop1             = 175,099–300,000
| ref1             = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|title=American Community Survey|year=2012|access-date=4 January 2016|archive-url=https://archive.today/20200212212406/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_12_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|archive-date=12 February 2020}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf |title=Ancestry: 2000 (Census 2000 Brief) |author=Angela Brittingham |author2=G. Patrizia de la Cruz |work=United States Census 2000 |publisher=U.S. Census Bureau |date=June 2006 |access-date=1 June 2008 |archive-url=http://webarchive.loc.gov/all/20041204015245/http://www.census.gov/prod/2004pubs/c2kbr-35.pdf |archive-date=4 December 2004 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://cleveland.konzulat.si/index.php?id=841 |title=Slovenska skupnost v ZDA |access-date=13 October 2013}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in North America"/>
| region2          = {{flag|Italy}}
| pop2             = 80,000
| ref2             = <ref name="Glasgow"/><ref name="atlas">Zupančič, Jernej (author), Orožen Adamič, Milan (photographer), Filipič, Hanzi (photographer): ''Slovenci po svetu''. In publication: ''Nacionalni atlas Slovenije'' (Kartografsko gradivo) / Inštitut za geografijo, Geografski inštitut Antona Melika. Ljubljana: Rokus, 2001.{{COBISS|ID=18593837}}{{in lang|sl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-italiji/|title=Slovenci v Italiji|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region3          = {{flag|Germany}}
| pop3             = 50,000
| ref3             = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref name="Slovenes in Europe">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-evropi/|title=Slovenci v Evropi|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region4          = {{flag|Austria}}
| pop4             = 50,000
| ref4             = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-avstriji/|title=Slovenci v Avstriji|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region5          = {{flag|Canada}}
| pop5             = 40,470–50,000
| ref5             = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www12.statcan.gc.ca/census-recensement/2016/dp-pd/prof/details/page.cfm?Lang=E&Geo1=PR&Code1=01&Geo2=PR&Code2=01&Data=Count&SearchText=Canada&SearchType=Begins&SearchPR=01&B1=Ethnic%20origin&TABID=1|title=Census Profile, 2016 Census|publisher=[[Statistics Canada]]|access-date=4 March 2019}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in North America">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-severni-ameriki/|title=Slovenci v Severni Ameriki|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region6          = {{flag|Argentina}}
| pop6             = 30,000
| ref6             = <ref name="Glasgow"/><ref name="Slovenes in South America">{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-juzni-ameriki/|title=Slovenci v Južni Ameriki|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region7          = {{flag|Brazil}}
| pop7             = 28,500 <small>(est.)</small>
| ref7             = <ref name="zbornik"/>
| region8          = {{flag|Australia}}
| pop8             = 20,000–25,000
| ref8             = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.gov.si/teme/slovenci-v-avstraliji/|title=Slovenci v Avstraliji|website=gov.si|publisher=Government of Slovenia}}</ref>
| region9          = {{flag|France}}
| pop9             = 20,000
| ref9             = <ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/dossiers-pays/hongrie/presentation-de-la-hongrie/|title=Présentation de la Slovénie, Relations bilatérales|website=France Diplomatie : : Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères|access-date=12 December 2017}}</ref><ref name="zbornik"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo_833/slovenie_231/presentation-slovenie_1432/donnees-generales_1086.html |title=Page d'erreur 404 |author=Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement international |work=France Diplomatie :: Ministère des Affaires étrangères et du Développement international |access-date=18 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141026124613/http://www.diplomatie.gouv.fr/fr/pays-zones-geo_833/slovenie_231/presentation-slovenie_1432/donnees-generales_1086.html |archive-date=26 October 2014 }}</ref>
| region10         = {{flag|Switzerland}}
| pop10            = 14,000
| ref10            = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/01/22/publ.Document.88215.pdf |title=Bericht 2006 |access-date=18 March 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303193114/http://www.bfs.admin.ch/bfs/portal/de/index/themen/01/22/publ.Document.88215.pdf |archive-date=3 March 2016 }}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region11         = {{flag|Croatia}}
| pop11            = 10,517 <small>(2011)</small>
| ref11            = <ref>{{Croatian Census 2011 |url=http://web.dzs.hr/Eng/censuses/census2011/results/htm/e01_01_05/E01_01_05.html |title=Population by ethnicity – detailed classification |access-date=30 November 2015}}</ref>
| region12         = {{flag|Serbia}}
| pop12            = 2,829
| ref12            = <ref>{{cite web | title=Konačni rezultati - Nacionalna pripadnost &#124; O POPISU STANOVNIŠTVA | url=https://popis2022.stat.gov.rs/sr-Latn/5-vestisaopstenja/news-events/20230428-konacnirezpopisa }}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region13         = {{flag|Sweden}}
| pop13            = 3,300–7,000
| ref13            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region14         = {{flag|United Kingdom}}
| pop14            = 5,000
| ref14            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/zdruzeno-kraljestvo/|title=Združeno kraljestvo}}</ref>
| region15         = {{flag|Bosnia and Herzegovina}}
| pop15            = 5,000
| ref15            = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.uni-koeln.de/jur-fak/ostrecht/minderheitenschutz/Vortraege/BiH/BiH_Marko_Railic.pdf|title=Numbers in 1991|website=Uni-koeln.de|access-date=12 December 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303183909/http://www.uni-koeln.de/jur-fak/ostrecht/minderheitenschutz/Vortraege/BiH/BiH_Marko_Railic.pdf|archive-date=3 March 2016}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region16         = {{flag|Hungary}}
| pop16            = 2,812–5,000
| ref16            = <ref name="KSH">{{cite book|last=Vukovich|first=Gabriella|url=http://www.ksh.hu/docs/hun/xftp/idoszaki/mikrocenzus2016/mikrocenzus_2016_12.pdf|title=Mikrocenzus 2016 - 12. Nemzetiségi adatok|trans-title=2016 microcensus - 12. Ethnic data|language=hu|publisher=Hungarian Central Statistical Office|location=Budapest|year=2018|access-date=9 January 2019|isbn=978-963-235-542-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/madzarska/|title=Madžarska|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region17         = {{flag|Belgium}}
| pop17            = 4,000
| ref17            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region18         = {{flag|Uruguay}}
| pop18            = 2,000
| ref18            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/urugvaj/|title=Urugvaj|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region19         = {{flag|Spain}}
| pop19            = 1,213–2000
| ref19            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.madrid.veleposlanistvo.si/index.php?id=3667|title=Slovenci v Španiji|website=madrid.veleposlatistvo.si|date=20 May 2024 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/spanija/|title=Španija|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region20         = {{flag|Russia}}
| pop20            = 1,700 <small>(est.)</small>
| ref20            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/rusija/|title=Rusija|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region21         = {{flag|North Macedonia}}
| pop21            = 1,247
| ref21            = <ref name="zbornik">Trebše-Štolfa, Milica, ed., Klemenčič, Matjaž, resp. ed.: ''Slovensko izseljenstvo: zbornik ob 50-letnici Slovenske izseljenske matice''. Ljubljana: Združenje Slovenska izseljenska matica, 2001.{{COBISS|ID=115722752}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region22         = {{flag|Netherlands}}
| pop22            = 1,000
| ref22            = <ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.justitie.nl/Images/Etnische_Groeperingen_tcm74-31515.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050607211706/http://www.justitie.nl/Images/Etnische_Groeperingen_tcm74-31515.pdf |archive-date=2005-06-07 |title=Etnische groepen uit Bosnië & Herzegovina, Kroatië, Macedonië, Servië & Montenegro en Slovenië in Nederland |language=nl}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/nizozemska/|title=Nizozemska|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region23         = {{flag|Luxembourg}}
| pop23            = 700
| ref23            = <ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region24         = {{flag|New Zealand}}
| pop24            = 500
| ref24            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/nova-zelandija/|title=Nova Zelandija|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region25         = {{flag|Montenegro}}
| pop25            = 354
| ref25            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/crna-gora/|title=Črna Gora|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region26         = {{flag|Czech Republic}}
| pop26            = 350
| ref26            = <ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region27         = {{flag|Venezuela}}
| pop27            = 346
| ref27            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/venezuela/|title=Venezuela|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region28         = {{flag|Norway}}
| pop28            = 330
| ref28            = <ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ssb.no/innvbef_en/tab-2009-04-30-05-en.html|title=Table 5 Persons with immigrant background by immigration category, country background and sex. 1 January 2009|website=Ssb.no|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/norveska/|title=Norveška|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region29         = {{flag|Chile}}
| pop29            = 300
| ref29            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref name="Slovenes in South America"/>
| region30         = {{flag|South Africa}}
| pop30            = 120–300
| ref30            = <ref name="zbornik"/><ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/juznoafriska-republika/|title=Južnoafriška republika|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region31         = {{flag|Portugal}}
| pop31            = 290
| ref31            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.sef.pt/pt/Documents/RIFA2022%20vF2a.pdf|title=Rifa 2022|website=sefstat.sef.pt}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region32         = {{flag|Ireland}}
| pop32            = 250
| ref32            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cso.ie/en/media/csoie/census/documents/census2011profile7/Profile7EducationEthnicityandIrishTravellerEntiredoc.pdf|title=Ireland Census 2011 – Religion, Ethnicity and Irish Travellers|page=52}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region33         = {{flag|Poland}}
| pop33            = 250
| ref33            = <ref name="stat">''[http://www.stat.gov.pl/cps/rde/xbcr/gus/LUD_ludnosc_stan_str_dem_spo_NSP2011.pdf Ludność. Stan i struktura demograficzno=społeczna]''. {{Retrieved|access-date=2013-04-14}}</ref><ref name="Slovenes in Europe"/>
| region34         = {{flag|Japan}}
| pop34            = 217
| ref34            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.e-stat.go.jp/stat-search/files?page=1&layout=datalist&toukei=00250012&tstat=000001018034&cycle=1&tclass1=000001060399&tclass2val=0&metadata=1&data=1|title=在留外国人統計|language=ja|date=15 December 2023|access-date=29 April 2024}}</ref>
| region35         = {{flag|Finland}}
| pop35            = 196
| ref35            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/finska/|title=Finska|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region36         = {{flag|China}}
| pop36            = 147
| ref36            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/kitajska/|title=Kitajska|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region37         = {{flag|Singapore}}
| pop37            = 65–120
| ref37            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/singapur/|title=Singapur|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region38         = {{flag|Egypt}}
| pop38            = 96
| ref38            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/egipt/|title=Egipt|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| region39         = {{flag|Jordan}}
| pop39            = 70
| ref39            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://slovenci.si/drzave/jordanija/|title=Jordanija|website=slovenci.si|publisher=Office of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia for Slovenians abroad and around the world}}</ref>
| languages        = [[Slovene language|Slovene]]{{efn|Also referred to as ''Slovenian''}}
| religions        = Predominantly [[Catholic Church in Slovenia|Roman Catholic]],<br/>[[Lutheranism|Lutheran]] minority<ref name=Crnic>{{cite journal |url=http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-VNL24FNV/? |title=Religious Pluralisation in Slovenia |last1=Črnič |first1=Aleš |last2=Komel |first2=Mirt |last3=Smrke |first3=Marjan |last4=Šabec |first4=Ksenija |last5=Vovk |first5=Tina |journal=Teorija in Praksa |year=2013 |publisher=University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Sociology, Political Sciences and Journalism |volume=50 |issue=1 |id={{COBISS|ID=31869277}} |pages=205–232, 264 |issn=0040-3598 |access-date=28 February 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161128050036/http://www.dlib.si/details/URN:NBN:SI:DOC-VNL24FNV/ |archive-date=28 November 2016 }}</ref><ref name = "slovenemuslims" />
| related          = Other [[South Slavs]]<br/>Especially [[Kajkavian|Kajkavian Croats]], [[Resia, Friuli#Identity disputes and minority rights|Resians]]
| region40         = {{flag|Taiwan}}
| pop40            = 16
| ref40            = <ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.immigration.gov.tw/media/76177/%E5%A4%96%E5%83%91%E5%B1%85%E7%95%99%E4%BA%BA%E6%95%B8%E7%B5%B1%E8%A8%88%E8%A1%A811101.xls|title=Statistics on the number of foreigners residing in Taiwan with valid residence permits (in Taiwan)|website=immigration.gov.tw}}</ref>
}}
{{Slovenes}}

The '''Slovenes''', also known as '''Slovenians''' ({{langx|sl|Slovenci}} {{IPA|sl|slɔˈʋéːntsi|}}), are a [[South Slavs|South Slavic]] [[ethnic group]] native to [[Slovenia]] and adjacent regions in [[Italy]], [[Austria]] and [[Hungary]]. Slovenes share a common ancestry, [[Slovenian culture|culture]], and [[History of Slovenia|history]], and speak [[Slovene language|Slovene]] as their native language. 
Although Slovenes are linguistically classified as South Slavs, genetic studies indicate they share closer genetic affinities with West Slavic and Central European populations than with other South Slavs such as Bulgarians and Macedonians.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Zupan |first1=Andrej |last2=Vrabec |first2=Katarina |last3=Glavač |first3=Damjan |title=The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations |journal=Annals of Human Biology |volume=40 |issue=6 |pages=515–526 |year=2013 |doi=10.3109/03014460.2013.813584|pmid=23879710 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |last1=Kushniarevich |first1=Anastasia |last2=Utevska |first2=Olga |last3=Chuhryaeva |first3=Maryna |last4=Agdzhoyan |first4=Anastasiya |last5=Dibirova |first5=Khadizhat |title=Genetic Heritage of the Balto-Slavic Speaking Populations: A Synthesis of Autosomal, Mitochondrial and Y-Chromosomal Data |journal=PLOS ONE |volume=10 |issue=9 |article-number=e0135820 |year=2015 |doi=10.1371/journal.pone.0135820|doi-access=free |pmid=26332464 |pmc=4558026 |bibcode=2015PLoSO..1035820K }}</ref>

Outside of Slovenia and Europe, Slovenes form diaspora groups in the [[United States]], [[Canada]], [[Argentina]] and [[Australia]].

==Population==
===Population in Slovenia===
Most Slovenes live within the borders of the independent Slovenia (2,100,000 inhabitants, 83% Slovenes est. July 2020). In the Slovenian national census of 2002, 1,631,363 people ethnically declared themselves as Slovenes,<ref name="Population">{{cite web |date=1 October 2023 |title=Population |url=https://www.stat.si/StatWeb/Field/index/17 |access-date=16 April 2024 |work=Statistični urad Republike Slovenije, October 2023 |publisher=Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia}}</ref> while 1,723,434 people claimed Slovene as their native language.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.stat.si/popis2002/si/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=9 |title=Table 9: Population by mother tongue, Slovenia, Census 1991 and 2002 |work=Census of population, households and housing 2002 |publisher=Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia |access-date=1 June 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070312040627/http://www.stat.si/popis2002/si/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=9 |archive-date=12 March 2007 }}</ref>

===Population abroad===
{{Main|Slovene diaspora}}
The autochthonous [[Slovene minority in Italy]] is estimated at 83,000 to 100,000,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.minorityrights.org/1616/italy/slovenes.html |title=The world directory of minorities and indigenous peoples |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150904060246/http://www.minorityrights.org/1616/italy/slovenes.html |archive-date=4 September 2015}}</ref> the [[Carinthian Slovenes|Slovene minority in southern Austria]] at 24,855, in [[Slovenes of Croatia|Croatia]] at 13,200, and in [[Hungarian Slovenes|Hungary]] at 3,180.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.drustvo-dugs.si/tabor-posocje/Slovenci_v_zamejstvu.pdf |title=Slovenci v zamejstvu |first=Anton |last=Polšak |location=Livške Ravne |date=October 2010 |work=Seminar ZRSŠ: Drugačna geografija [ZRSŠ Seminary: A Different Geography] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304054352/http://www.drustvo-dugs.si/tabor-posocje/Slovenci_v_zamejstvu.pdf |archive-date=4 March 2016}}</ref>
Significant Slovene expatriate communities live in the [[Slovene Americans|United States]] and [[Slovene Canadians|Canada]], in other European countries, in [[Slovene communities in South America|South America]] (mostly in [[Slovene Argentines|Argentina]] and [[Slovene Brazilians|Brazil]]), and in [[Slovene Australians|Australia]] and [[Slovene New Zealanders|New Zealand]]. The largest population of Slovenes outside of Slovenia is in [[Cleveland]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_09_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|archive-url=https://archive.today/20150215231840/http://factfinder.census.gov/faces/tableservices/jsf/pages/productview.xhtml?pid=ACS_09_1YR_B04003&prodType=table|archive-date=15 February 2015|title=American FactFinder - Results|author=Data Access and Dissemination Systems (DADS)|website=Factfinder2.census.gov|access-date=18 March 2015}}</ref>

==Genetics==
In a 2013 [[Y-DNA]] study, 29-32% of 399–458 sampled Slovenian males belong to Y-DNA [[Haplogroup R1a]], more frequent than in South Slavic peoples. The second largest [[Haplogroup]] was the [[Haplogroup R1b]], which was at 26-28%, following was the [[Haplogroup I-M170|Haplogroup I]], with 30-31%. Due to the geographic position of Slovenia, the population is substantially diverse, sharing genes with [[Italic peoples]], [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], [[Slavs]] and [[Hungarians]]. The Slovenian population displays close genetic affiliations with [[West Slavs|West Slavic]], [[South Slavs|South Slavic]], [[Austrians]] and [[Italians|Italic]] populations. The homogenous genetic strata of the West Slavic populations and the Slovenian population suggest the existence of a common ancestral population in the central European region.<ref name="zupan">{{cite journal|last1=Zupan|first1=Andrej|last2=Vrabec|first2=Katarina|last3=Glavač|first3=Damjan|title=The paternal perspective of the Slovenian population and its relationship with other populations|journal=Annals of Human Biology|date=23 July 2013|volume=40|issue=6|pages=515–526|doi=10.3109/03014460.2013.813584 |pmid=23879710|s2cid=34621779|url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/251567977|issn=1464-5033}}</ref> The R-Z92 branch of R-Z280 which is significant among [[East Slavs]] is recorded as completely absent among Slovenes.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Underhill|first1=Peter A.|title=The phylogenetic and geographic structure of Y-chromosome haplogroup R1a|journal=European Journal of Human Genetics|date=1 January 2015|volume=23|issue=1|pages=124–131|doi=10.1038/ejhg.2014.50 |language=en|issn=1018-4813|pmid=24667786|pmc=4266736}}</ref> In 2016 study, including 100 sampled Slovenians, 27.1% belong to R1b, of which 11.03% of R1b belongs to the R-P312 branch, 6% to the eastern and 4% to R-U106. In the 2018 autosomal analysis of Slovenian population, the Slovenes clustered with [[Hungarians]] and were close to [[Czechs]].<ref name="Delser2018">{{cite journal |author=P. M. Delser |title=Genetic Landscape of Slovenians: Past Admixture and Natural Selection Pattern|journal=Frontiers in Genetics |volume=9 |article-number=551 |year=2018 |doi=10.3389/fgene.2018.00551 |pmid=30510563 |pmc=6252347 |display-authors=etal|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==History==

===Early Alpine Slavs===
{{main | Slavic settlement of the Eastern Alps}}
In the 6th century AD, [[Slavs|Slavic people]] settled the region between the [[Alps]] and the [[Adriatic Sea]] in two consecutive migration waves: the first wave came from the [[Moravia|Moravian lands]] around 550,<ref>
[[Peter Štih]]: "Ozemlje Slovenije v zgodnjem srednjem veku: osnovne poteze zgodovinskega razvoja od začetka 6. stoletja do konca 9. stoletja" [The territory of Slovenia during early Middle Ages: a basic outline of historical development from early 6th century to late 9th century], Ljubljana, 2001. {{COBISS|ID=111715072}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Natek
 |first1               = Karel
 |translator-last1     = Cregeen
 |translator-first1    = Martin
 |year                 = 1992
 |chapter              = Karantania
 |title                = Discover Slovenia
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=cn0tAQAAIAAJ
 |publication-place    = Ljubljana
 |publisher            = Cankarjeva založba
 |page                 = 19
 |isbn                 = 978-86-361-0802-4
 |access-date          = 12 October 2024
 |quote                = [...] the former inhabitants of the lands of modern Slovenia [...] were overwhelmed by the Slovenes during the migration of nations after 500 AD. In the 6th century AD, west Slavic tribes who had come through Moravia into the eastern Alps, began to dominate the entire area along the Danube between Vienna and Linz and from the High Tauern below Salzburg to Trieste bay the Adriatic. Around 200,000 people lived on this territory, three times bigger than contemporary Slovenia.
}} 
</ref>
while the second wave, coming from the southeast, moved into the area after the migration of the [[Lombards]] to Italy in 568.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Štih
 |first1               = Peter
 |author-link1         = Peter Štih
 |translator-last1     = Smrke
 |translator-first1    = France
 |date                 = 13 August 2010
 |chapter              = Structures of the Slovene Territory in the Early Middle Ages
 |title                = The Middle Ages between the Eastern Alps and the Northern Adriatic: Select Papers on Slovene Historiography and Medieval History
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=4d55DwAAQBAJ
 |series               = Volume 11 of East Central and Eastern Europe in the Middle Ages, 450-1450; ISSN 1872-8103
 |publication-place    = Leiden
 |publisher            = Brill
 |page                 = 149
 |isbn                 = 978-90-04-18591-3
 |access-date          = 12 October 2024
 |quote                = The Slavs settled the present-day Slovene territory in the period between 568, when the Lombards moved from Pannonia to Italy, and the last decade of the 6th century, when the Slavs were already clashing with the Bavarians in the Upper Drava Valley and penetrating into Italy across Istria or the Karst.
}} 
</ref>

From 623 to 658 Slavic peoples between the upper [[Elbe]] River and the [[Karawanks]] mountain range united under the leadership of [[Samo|King Samo]] ({{langx | sl | Kralj Sámo}}) in what became known{{when|date=October 2024}} as [[Samo's Empire|"Samo's Tribal Union"]]. The tribal union collapsed after Samo's death in 658, but a smaller Slavic tribal principality, [[Carantania]] ([[Slovene language|Slovene]]: ''Karantanija''), remained, with its centre in the present-day region of [[Carinthia]].

===Alpine Slavs during the Frankish Empire===
Faced with the pressing danger of [[Pannonian Avars|Avar tribes]] from the east, the [[Caranthanians|Carantanians]] accepted a union with [[History of Bavaria#Migrations and early medieval period|Bavaria]] in 745, and later in the 8th century recognized [[Franks|Frankish]] rule{{citation needed|date=December 2018}} and accepted Christianity.<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oMforkIDPrcC&pg=PA52|title=The A to Z of Slovenia|first1=Leopoldina|last1=Plut-Pregelj|first2=Carole|last2=Rogel|date=20 May 2010|publisher=Scarecrow Press|isbn=978-1-4617-3175-7|via=Google Books}}</ref> The last Slavic state formation in the region, the [[principality]] of Prince [[Kocel]], lost its independence in 874. Slovene ethnic territory subsequently shrank due to pressure from [[ethnic German|Germans]] from the west and the arrival of [[Magyars|Hungarians]] in the [[Pannonian plain]]; it stabilized in its present form in the 15th century.

===16th century: Slovene Protestant reformation and consolidation of Slovene===
The first mentions of a common Slovene ethnic identity, transcending regional boundaries, date from the 16th century.<ref>Edo Škulj, ed., Trubarjev simpozij (Rome – Celje – Ljubljana: Celjska Mohorjeva družba, Društvo Mohorjeva družba, Slovenska teološka akademija, Inštitut za zgodovino Cerkve pri Teološki fakulteti, 2009).</ref> During this period, the first books in Slovene were written by the [[Protestantism|Protestant]] preacher [[Primož Trubar]] and his followers, establishing the base for the development of standard Slovene. In the second half of the 16th century, numerous books were printed in Slovene, including an integral translation of the Bible by [[Jurij Dalmatin]].

At the beginning of the 17th century, Protestantism was suppressed by the Habsburg-sponsored [[Counter Reformation]], which introduced the new aesthetics of [[Baroque]] culture.

===18th century: Slovenes under Maria Theresa and Joseph II===
The [[Age of Enlightenment|Enlightenment]] in the Habsburg monarchy brought significant social and cultural progress to the Slovene people. It hastened economic development and facilitated the appearance of a middle class. Under the reign of [[Maria Theresa of Austria|Maria Theresa]] and Emperor [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] (1765–1790) many reforms were undertaken in the administration and society, including land reforms, the modernization of the Church and compulsory primary education in Slovene (1774). The start of cultural-linguistic activities by Slovene intellectuals of the time brought about a national revival and the birth of the Slovene nation in the modern sense of the word. Before the [[Napoleonic Wars]], some secular literature in Slovene emerged. During the same period, the first history of the [[Slovene Lands]] as an ethnic unity was written by [[Anton Tomaž Linhart]], while [[Jernej Kopitar]] compiled the first comprehensive [[grammar]] of Slovene.<ref name="culture.si">{{cite web|url=http://www.culture.si/en/Slovenia |title=About Slovenia – Culture of Slovenia |date=19 February 2010 |publisher=Culture.si |access-date=2012-06-02}}</ref>

===Slovenes under Napoleon (1809–1813)===
Between 1809 and 1813, Slovenia was part of the [[Illyrian Provinces]], an autonomous province of the Napoleonic [[First French Empire|French Empire]], with Ljubljana as the capital. Although the French rule was short-lived, it significantly contributed to the rise of national consciousness and political awareness of Slovenes. After the fall of Napoleon, all Slovene Lands were once again included in the [[Austrian Empire]]. Gradually, a distinct Slovene national consciousness developed, and the quest for a political unification of all Slovenes became widespread. In the 1820s and 1840s, the interest in Slovene language and folklore grew enormously, with numerous philologists advancing the first steps towards standardization of the language. [[Illyrian movement]], [[Pan-Slavic]] and [[Austro-Slavism|Austro-Slavic]] ideas gained importance. However, the intellectual circle around the philologist [[Matija Čop]] and the Romantic poet [[France Prešeren]] was influential in affirming the idea of Slovene linguistic and cultural individuality, refusing the idea of merging Slovenes into a wider Slavic nation.

===1840s: the first Slovene national political programme===
[[File:Zemljovid slovenske dežele in pokrajin (Original).jpg|thumb|[[Peter Kosler]]'s [[Kosler's Map|map of the Slovene Land]], designed during the [[Spring of Nations]] in 1848, became the symbol of the quest for a [[United Slovenia]].]]
In the 1840s, the [[Slovene national movement]] developed far beyond literary expression.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=_G43AAAAIAAJ&pg=PA19 |title=A Short History of Yugoslavia: From Early Times to 1966 |first1=Stephen |last1=Clissold |first2=Henry |last2=Clifford Darby |chapter=Slovene Consciousness in the Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries |pages=[https://archive.org/details/shorthistoryofyu0000clis/page/19 19–20] |publisher=CUP Archive |year=1966 |isbn=978-0-521-09531-0}}</ref> In 1848, the first Slovene national political programme, called ''[[United Slovenia]]'' ({{lang|sl|Zedinjena Slovenija}}), was written in the context of the [[Spring of Nations]] movement within the Austrian Empire.<ref name="Benderly1996">{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXiCp49NJh8C&pg=PA72 |title=Independent Slovenia: Origins, Movements, Prospects |first1=Jill |last1=Benderly |first2=Evan |last2=Kraft |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-312-16447-8 |page=72}}</ref> It demanded a unification of all Slovene-speaking territories in an autonomous kingdom, named ''Slovenija'',<ref name="Benderly1996" /> within the empire and an official status for Slovene.<ref>{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qwBUkHaz76QC&pg=PA13 |title=Slovenia |chapter=1813–1914: The Birth of Slovene Politics |first=James |last=Stewart |publisher=New Holland Publishers |year=2006 |isbn=978-1-86011-336-9}}</ref> Although the project failed,<ref name="Benderly1996" /> it served as an important platform of Slovene political activity in the following decades,<ref name="Verčič">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AAkj51GOor0C&pg=PA378 |title=Public Relations and Communication Management in Europe: A Nation-By-Nation Introduction to Public Relations Theory and Practice |chapter=Slovenia |first1=Dejan |last1=Verčič |editor1-first=Betteke |editor1-last=Van Ruler |editor2-first=Dejan |editor2-last=Verčič |page=378 |year=2004 |publisher=Walter de Gruyter |isbn=978-3-11-017612-4}}</ref> particularly in the 1860s and 1870s, when mass Slovene rallies, named ''[[tabor (meeting)|tabori]]'', were organised.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NV9Ky3VCo3sC&pg=PA15 |title=Slovenia: Evolving Loyalties |first=John |last=K. Cox |publisher=Routledge |year=2005 |isbn=978-0-415-27431-9 |page=15}}</ref> The conflict between Slovene and German nationalists deepened.<ref name="Benderly9">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=rXiCp49NJh8C&pg=PA10 |title=Independent Slovenia: Origins, Movements, Prospects |chapter=In the Beginning: Slovenes from the Seventh Century to 1945 |first1=Jill |last1=Benderly |first2=Evan |last2=Kraft |publisher=Palgrave Macmillan |year=1996 |isbn=978-0-312-16447-8 |pages=9–11}}</ref> In 1866, some Slovenes were left to Italy,<ref name="Benderly9" /> and in 1867 some remained in the Hungarian part of the [[Austria-Hungary]]. This significantly affected the nation and led to further radicalisation of the Slovene national movement.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0q1nAAAAMAAJ |title=Slovenes and Yugoslavism, 1890–1914 |first=Carole |last=Rogel |year=1977 |publisher=East European Quarterly |series=East European Monographs |issue=24 |isbn=978-0-914710-17-2 |page=22}}</ref> In the 1890s, the first Slovene political parties were established. All of them were loyal to Austria, but they were also espousing a common South Slavic cause.<ref name="Benderly9" />

===Emigration===
Between 1880 and [[World War I]], the largest numbers of Slovenes emigrated to America. Most of these went between 1905 and 1913, although the exact number is impossible to determine because Slovenes were often classified as [[Austrians]], [[Italians]], [[Croats]], or under other, broader labels, such as [[Slavic peoples|Slavonic]] or [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]].<ref name="everyculture1">[http://www.everyculture.com/multi/Pa-Sp/Slovenian-Americans.html Slovenian Americans], www.everyculture.com</ref> Those who settled in [[Bethlehem, Pennsylvania]] came to be called ''Windish'', from the Austrian German term ''Windisch'' '[[Wends|Wend]]'.<ref>Paternost, J. 1981. "Sociolinguistic Aspects of Slovenes in Pennsylvania."  ''The Slavic Languages in Emigre Communities'' (= ''International Review of Slavic Linguistics'' 6, 1–3, special issue, ed. Roland Sussex), 97–120. Edmonton: Linguistic Research, p. 106.</ref>

The largest group of Slovenes in the United States eventually settled in [[Cleveland]], Ohio, and the surrounding area. The second-largest group settled in Chicago, principally on the [[Lower West Side, Chicago|Lower West Side]]. The American Slovenian Catholic Union (Ameriško slovenska katoliška enota) was founded as an organization to protect Slovene-American rights in [[Joliet, Illinois]], {{convert|64|km|mi|abbr=on}} southwest of [[Chicago]], and in Cleveland. Today there are KSKJ branches all over the country offering life insurance and other services to Slovene-Americans. Freethinkers were centered around 18th and Racine Ave. in Chicago, where they founded the [[Slovene National Benefit Society]]; other Slovene immigrants went to southwestern Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio and the state of [[West Virginia]] to work in the coal mines and lumber industry. Some Slovenes also went to the [[Pittsburgh]] or [[Youngstown, Ohio]], areas, to work in the steel mills, as well as [[Minnesota]]'s [[Iron Range]], to work in the iron mines and also to [[Copper Country]] on the Keweenaw Peninsula of Michigan for copper mining. Many also went west to [[Rock Springs, Wyoming|Rock Springs]] in [[Wyoming]] to work in the coal mines that supported the Union Pacific Railway.

===World War I===
{{See also|Battles of the Isonzo}}
There were more than 30,000 casualties among ethnic Slovenes during [[World War I]] because they were and still are inhabiting the territory where the [[Isonzo Front]] was fought. While the majority of them were drafted in the [[Austro-Hungarian Army]], also Slovene civil inhabitants from the [[Gorizia and Gradisca]] region suffered in hundreds of thousands because they were resettled in [[refugee camps]] where, however, Slovene refugees were treated as state enemies by Italians and several thousands died of malnutrition in Italian refugee camps.<ref>Petra Svoljšak, ''Slovenski begunci v Italiji med prvo svetovno vojno'' (Ljubljana 1991).</ref>

===Fascist Italianization of Littoral Slovenes===
<div style="float:right; font-size:88%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; width:360px; padding:3px;">
{{Image label begin|image=Treaty of Rapallo.png|width=340}}
{{Image label small|x=0.458|y=0.178|scale=340|text=[[Austria|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Austria</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.891|y=0.125|scale=340|text=[[Hungary|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Hungary</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.012|y=0.395|scale=340|text=[[Kingdom of Italy|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Kingdom<br />of Italy</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.695|y=0.415|scale=340|text=[[Kingdom of Yugoslavia|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Kingdom of<br /> Yugoslavia</span>]]}}
{{Image label end}}
The annexed western [[Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947)|quarter of Slovene speaking territory]], and approximately 327,000 out of the total population of 1.3<ref name="SacroEgoismo2012">Lipušček, U. (2012) ''Sacro egoismo: Slovenci v krempljih tajnega londonskega pakta 1915'', Cankarjeva založba, Ljubljana. {{ISBN|978-961-231-871-0}}</ref> million Slovenes,<ref name=Cresciani_ClashOfCivilisations>Cresciani, Gianfranco (2004) [https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B1aAzmXBjZO5eFQySUlrdTBYRkk Clash of civilisations], ''Italian Historical Society Journal'', Vol.12, No.2, p.&nbsp;4</ref> were subjected to forced [[Fascist Italianization]]. On the map of present-day Slovenia with its traditional regions' boundaries.
</div>
After the First World War (1914–1918), the majority of Slovenes joined other South Slavs in the [[State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs]], followed by the [[Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes]], and finally the [[Kingdom of Yugoslavia]]. In the new system of [[Subdivisions of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia|banovinas]] (since 1929), Slovenes formed a majority in the [[Drava Banovina]].

In the ex-[[Austrian Empire]] area given to Italy in exchange for joining [[Great Britain]] in [[World War I]], the forced [[Fascist Italianization]] of the [[Slovene minority in Italy (1920–1947)]] was under no international restraint especially after [[Benito Mussolini]] came to power in 1922. Already during the period of Italian occupation, between the years 1918 and 1920, all Slovene cultural associations ([[Slovene Sokol movement|Sokol]], "reading rooms" etc.) had been forbidden.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nOALhEZkYDkC&q=%22signed%20a%20treaty%20on%20November%2012%2C%201920%2C%20at%20Rapallo&pg=PA45 |last=Hehn |first=Paul N. |title=A Low Dishonest Decade: The Great Powers, Eastern Europe, and the Economic Origins of World War II, 1930–1941 |year=2005 |publisher=Continuum International Publishing Group |pages=44–45 |isbn=0-8264-1761-2}}</ref> [[Fascist Italy (1922–1943)|Fascist Italy]] brought Italian teachers from [[southern Italy]] to Italianize ethnic Slovene and [[Croatian people|Croatian]] children,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Rutar |first1=Borut |title=TIGR proti duhovnemu genocidu fašizma nad Primorci: Tolminsko, 1918-1941 |date=1996 |publisher=Tangram |location=Ljubljana |page=47}}</ref> while the Slovene and Croatian teachers, poets, writers, artists and clergy were exiled to [[Sardinia]] and elsewhere to [[southern Italy]].{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} In 1926, claiming that it was restoring surnames to their original Italian form, the Italian government announced the Italianization of names and surnames not only of citizens of the Slovene minority, but also of [[Croatian people|Croatian]] and [[German people|German]].<ref>Regio decreto legge 10 Gennaio 1926, n. 17: Restituzione in forma italiana dei cognomi delle famiglie della provincia di Trento</ref><ref>Hrvoje Mezulić-Roman Jelić: O Talijanskoj upravi u Istri i Dalmaciji 1918–1943.:  nasilno potalijančivanje prezimena, imena i mjesta, Dom i svijet, Zagreb, 2005., {{ISBN|953-238-012-4}}</ref><!-- Hrvoje Mezulić: "Fašizam, krstitelj i palitelj"/Fascism, baptiser and scorcher --> Some Slovenes willingly accepted Italianization in order to lose the status of being second-class citizens with no upward social mobility.{{citation needed|date=January 2016}} By the mid-1930s, around 70,000 Slovenes had fled the region, mostly to Yugoslavia and [[South America]].{{citation needed|date=May 2013}}

In the bilingual regions people of [[Carinthia (duchy)|Carinthia]] decided in a 1920 [[Carinthian Plebiscite|referendum that most of Carinthia should remain in Austria]].

Slovene volunteers also participated in the [[Spanish Civil War]] and the [[Second Italo-Abyssinian War]].{{Citation needed|date=September 2021}}

===World War II and aftermath===
<div style="float:right; font-size:88%; border: 1px solid #a2a9b1; width:360px; padding:3px;">
{{Image label begin|image=Provincia di Lubiana1941-1943.jpg|width=350}}
{{Image label small|x=0.345|y=0.105|scale=350|text=[[Austria|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Germany</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.899|y=0.058|scale=350|text=[[Hungary|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Hungary</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.012|y=0.465|scale=350|text=[[Kingdom of Italy|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Kingdom<br /><br />of Italy</span>]]}}
{{Image label small|x=0.815|y=0.454|scale=350|text=[[Independent State of Croatia|<span style="color:#0645AD;">Independent<br /><br />State of<br /><br />Croatia</span>]]}}
{{Image label end}}
During WWII, [[Nazi Germany]] and Hungary occupied northern areas (brown and dark green areas, respectively), while [[Fascist Italy]] occupied the vertically hashed black area, including [[Gottschee]] area (solid black western part being annexed by Italy already with the [[Treaty of Rapallo (1920)|Treaty of Rapallo]]). After 1943, Germany took over the Italian occupational area, as well.
</div>
During World War II, Slovenes were in a unique situation. While Greece shared its experience of being trisected, Slovenia was the only country that experienced a further step—absorption and annexation into neighboring [[Nazi]] Germany, [[Fascist Italy]], and Hungary.<ref>Gregor Joseph Kranjc (2013).[https://www.amazon.com/Walk-Devil-Collaboration-Occupation-1941-1945/dp/1442613300/ref=sr_1_1/180-8718746-1176833?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1378491455&sr=1-1&keywords=1442613300#reader_1442613300 To Walk with the Devil], University of Toronto Press, Scholarly Publishing Division, p. introduction 5</ref> After Yugoslavia was invaded by [[Axis powers]] on 6 April 1941, Germany and Hungary occupied northern Slovenia. Some villages in [[Lower Carniola]] were annexed by the [[Independent State of Croatia]].<ref name="sečen2005">{{cite news |url=http://www.dnevnik.si/tiskane_izdaje/dnevnik/121558 |title=Mejo so zavarovali z žico in postavili mine |language=sl |trans-title=They Protected the Border with Wire and Set up Mines |newspaper=Dnevnik.si |first=Ernest |last=Sečen |date=16 April 2005 |access-date=17 October 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150321045008/http://www.dnevnik.si/tiskane_izdaje/dnevnik/121558 |archive-date=21 March 2015 }}</ref>

The Nazis started a policy of violent [[Germanisation]]. During the war, tens of thousands of Slovenes were resettled or chased away, imprisoned, or transported to [[labor camp|labor]], [[Internment camp|internment]] and [[extermination camp]]s.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AKR9AAAAMAAJ |title=Vojna in vojaška zgodovina Slovencev |first=Janez J. |last=Švajncer |year=1992 |publisher=Prešernova družba [Prešeren's Society] |page=183 |id={{COBISS|ID=29731584}}}}</ref> Many were sent into exile to [[Nedić's Serbia]] and [[NDH|Croatia]]. The numbers of Slovenes drafted to the [[Wehrmacht|German military]] and paramilitary formations has been estimated at 150,000 men and women,<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=nSgWAQAAMAAJ |title=Razdvojeni narod: Slovenija 1941–1945: okupacija, kolaboracija, državljanska vojna, revolucija |first=Tamara |last=Griesser-Pečar |year=2007 |publisher=Mladinska knjiga |page=38 |isbn=978-961-01-0208-3}}</ref> almost a quarter of them died on various European battlefields, mostly on the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]].{{Citation needed|date=April 2012}}

Compared to the German policies in the northern Nazi-occupied area of Slovenia and the forced [[Fascist italianization]] in the former [[Austrian Littoral]] that was annexed after the First World War, the initial Italian policy in the central Slovenia was not as violent. Tens of thousands of Slovenes from German-occupied [[Lower Styria]] and [[Upper Carniola]] escaped to the Province of Ljubljana until June 1941.

However, after resistance started in [[Province of Ljubljana]], Italian violence against the Slovene civil population easily matched that of the Germans.<ref name="JamesBurgwyn_2004">James H. Burgwyn (2004). [http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/routledg/rmis/2004/00000009/00000003/art00005 General Roatta's war against the partisans in Yugoslavia: 1942], ''Journal of Modern Italian Studies'', Volume 9, Number 3, pp. 314–329(16)</ref> The province saw the deportation of 25,000 people—which equated to 7.5% of the total population of the province—in one of the most drastic operations in Europe that filled up many [[Italian concentration camps]], such as [[Rab concentration camp]], in [[Gonars concentration camp]], Monigo (Treviso), Renicci d'Anghiari, Chiesanuova (Padua) and elsewhere. To suppress the mounting resistance by the [[Slovene Partisans]], [[Mario Roatta]] adopted draconian measures of [[summary execution]]s, hostage-taking, reprisals, internments, and the burning of houses and whole villages. The "3C" pamphlet, tantamount to a declaration of war on civilians, involved him in [[Italian war crimes]].

In the summer of 1941, a [[resistance movement]] led by the [[Liberation Front of the Slovene Nation]], emerged in both the Italian and in the German occupation zones.<ref name="Vankovska2003">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ygb-6afEakIC&pg=PA165 |title=Between Past and Future: Civil-Military Relations in the Post-Communist Balkans |last1=Vankovska |first1=Biljana |last2=Wiberg |first2=Håkan |chapter=Slovene and the Yugoslav People's Army |publisher=I.B.Tauris |year=2003 |isbn=978-1-86064-624-9 |page=165}}</ref> The resistance, pluralistic at the beginning, was gradually taken over by the [[Communist Party of Slovenia|Communist Party]], as in the rest of occupied Yugoslavia.<ref name="Vankovska2003" /> Contrary to elsewhere in Yugoslavia, where on the freed territories the political life was organized by the military itself, the [[Slovene Partisans]] were subordinated to the civil political authority of the Front.<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://www.slovenskavojska.si/fileadmin/slovenska_vojska/pdf/publikacije/vojzgod6_2005_1_9.pdf |title=Vzroki za spopad med JLA in Slovenci |language=sl |trans-title=Reasons for the Conflict Between the Yugoslav People's Army and Slovenes |first=Božo |last=Repe |journal=Vojaška zgodovina [Military History] |year=2005 |volume=VI |issue=1/05 |issn=1580-4828 |page=5}}</ref>

In the summer of 1942, a civil war between Slovenes broke out. The two fighting factions were the [[Slovenian Partisans]] and the [[Anti-Communist Volunteer Militia|Italian-sponsored anti-communist militia]], later re-organized under Nazi command as the [[Slovene Home Guard]]. Small units of Slovenian [[Chetniks]] also existed in [[Lower Carniola]] and [[Styria, Slovenia|Styria]]. The Partisans were under the command of the Liberation Front (OF) and [[Josip Broz Tito|Tito]]'s Yugoslav resistance, while the [[Slovenian Covenant]] served as the political arm of the anti-Communist militia.{{Citation needed|date=April 2012}} The civil war was mostly restricted to the [[Province of Ljubljana]], where more than 80% of the Slovene anti-partisan units were active. Between 1943 and 1945, smaller anti-Communist militia existed in parts of the [[Slovenian Littoral]] and in [[Upper Carniola]], while they were virtually non-existent in the rest of the country. By 1945, the total number of Slovene anti-Communist militiamen reached 17,500.<ref>''Slovenski zgodovinski atlas'' (Ljubljana: Nova revija, 2011), 186.</ref>

Immediately after the war, some 12,000 members of the Slovene Home Guard were killed in the [[Kočevski Rog massacres]], while thousands of anti-communist civilians were killed in the first year after the war.<ref name="Godesa2002">Godeša B., Mlakar B., Šorn M., Tominšek Rihtar T. (2002): "Žrtve druge svetovne vojne v Sloveniji". In: ''Prispevki za novejšo zgodovino'', str. 125–130.</ref> In addition, hundreds of [[Italians|ethnic Italians]] from the [[Julian March]] were killed by the Yugoslav Army and partisan forces in the [[Foibe massacres]]; some 27,000 [[Istrian Italians]] fled [[Slovenian Istria]] from Communist persecution in the so-called [[Istrian–Dalmatian exodus]]. Members of the ethnic German minority either fled or were expelled from Slovenia.

The overall number of World War II casualties in Slovenia is estimated at 97,000. The number includes about 14,000 people, who were killed or died for other war-related reasons immediately after the end of the war,<ref name="Godesa2002"/><ref name="RTV2012-06-10" /> and the tiny Jewish community, which was nearly annihilated in the [[Holocaust]].{{#tag:ref|The figure includes the [[Carinthian Slovenes|Carinthian Slovene]] victims.[http://www.ds-rs.si/dokumenti/publikacije/Zbornik_05-1.pdf]}}<ref name="RTV2012-06-10">{{cite web |url=http://www.rtvslo.si/slovenija/prvi-pravi-popis-v-vojnem-in-povojnem-nasilju-je-umrlo-6-5-slovencev/284939 |title=Prvi pravi popis – v vojnem in povojnem nasilju je umrlo 6,5% Slovencev |language=sl |trans-title=The First True Census: 6,5% of Slovenes died in the War and Post-War Violence |date=10 June 2012 |work=MMC RTV Slovenija |publisher=RTV Slovenija |first=Ana |last=Svenšek}}</ref> In addition, tens of thousands of Slovenes left their homeland soon after the end of the war. Most of them settled in Brazil, Argentina, Canada, Australia, and the United States.

Most of [[Carinthia (state)|Carinthia]] remained part of Austria and around 42,000 Slovenes (per 1951 population census{{Citation needed|date=June 2008}}) were recognized as a minority and have enjoyed special rights following the [[Austrian State Treaty]] (Staatsvertrag) of 1955. Slovenes in the Austrian state of [[Styria]] (4,250)<ref name="statistik">{{Cite FTP |url=ftp://www.statistik.at/pub/neuerscheinungen/vzaustriaweb.pdf |title=Tabelle 5: Bevölkerung nach Umgangssprache und Staatsangehörigkeit |year=2002 |access-date=2 June 2008 |server=Volkszählung 2001: Hauptergebnisse I – Österreich |url-status=dead |language=de }}</ref> are not recognized as a minority and do not enjoy special rights, although the State Treaty of 27 July 1955 states otherwise. Many Carinthians remain uneasy about Slovene territorial claims, pointing to the fact that Yugoslav troops entered the [[States of Austria|state]] after each of the two World Wars.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}} The former [[Landeshauptmann|governor]], [[Jörg Haider]], regularly played the Slovene card when his popularity started to dwindle, and indeed relied on the strong anti-Slovene attitudes in many parts of the province for his power base.{{citation needed|date=September 2013}}

Yugoslavia acquired some territory from Italy after WWII but some 100,000 Slovenes remained behind the Italian border, notably around [[Trieste]] and [[Gorizia]].

==Slovenes in Socialist Yugoslavia==
{{See also|Titoism|Economy of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia}}
[[File:Locator map Slovenia in Yugoslavia.svg|thumb|[[Socialist Republic of Slovenia]] within the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]]]]
[[File:Coat of Arms of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia.svg|thumb|Coat of arms of the Socialist Republic of Slovenia]]
Following the re-establishment of Yugoslavia at the end of World War II, Slovenia became part of the [[Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia]], declared on 29 November 1943. A socialist state was established, but because of the [[Tito–Stalin split]], economic and personal freedoms were broader than in the [[Eastern Bloc]]. In 1947, Italy ceded most of the [[Julian March]] to Yugoslavia, and Slovenia thus regained the [[Slovene Littoral]].

The dispute over the port of [[Trieste]] however remained opened until 1954, until the short-lived [[Free Territory of Trieste]] was divided between Italy and Yugoslavia, thus giving Slovenia access to the sea. This division was ratified only in 1975 with the [[Treaty of Osimo]], which gave a final legal sanction to Slovenia's long disputed western border. From the 1950s, the [[Socialist Republic of Slovenia]] exercised relatively wide autonomy.

===The Stalinist period===
Between 1945 and 1948, a wave of political repressions took place in Slovenia and in Yugoslavia. Thousands of people were imprisoned for their political beliefs. Several tens of thousands of Slovenes left Slovenia immediately after the war in fear of Communist persecution. Many of them settled in Brazil and Argentina, which became the core of Slovenian anti-Communist emigration. More than 50,000 more followed in the next decade, frequently for economic reasons, as well as political ones. These later waves of Slovene immigrants mostly settled in Canada and in Australia, but also in other western countries.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

Additionally, due to the removal of [[Germans of Yugoslavia|German Yugoslavs]] (which included in many cases ethnic Slovenes of partial [[Germans|German]] or [[Austrians|Austrian]] heritage) from [[Yugoslavia]] under the leadership of [[Josip Broz Tito]], many citizens were interned in concentration and work camps or forcibly expelled from the country in the years that followed WWII.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Merten |first1=Ulrich |title=Forgotten Voices: The Expulsion of the Germans from Eastern Europe after World War II |date=2012 |publisher=Transaction Publishers |location=New Brunswick, NJ |page=226}}</ref> As a result, a large number of German and Austrian Slovenes [[Slovene diaspora|emigrated]] to [[Slovene minority in Italy|Italy]], Austria, Croatia, Hungary, and other European countries. Most who settled in Hungary during this period fled or were expelled to Germany and Austria in turn. Many [[expatriate]]s ultimately settled in the [[Greater Cleveland|Cleveland metropolitan area]] in the United States; the high concentration of Slovenes in Cleveland specifically is attributed to the industrial opportunities at the time, as well as the existing workforce in the area being largely of Germanic and Slavic descent.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slovenian National Home |url=https://clevelandhistorical.org/items/show/289 |website=clevelandhistorical.org |publisher=Cleveland Historical}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |last1=Ellenbogen |first1=Ezra |title=A History of Slovenians in Cleveland |url=https://globalcleveland.org/a-history-of-slovenians-in-cleveland/ |website=globalcleveland.org |publisher=Global Cleveland |date=25 February 2020}}</ref> Many Slovene expats during this period were sponsored to work in the United States by wealthy Slovenes or Slovene community organizations within the Greater Cleveland area, which greatly contributed to the large Slovene population in the city.<ref>{{cite web |title=Slovenes |url=https://case.edu/ech/articles/s/slovenes |website=case.edu |date=11 May 2018 |publisher=Encyclopedia of Cleveland History}}</ref>

===The 1948 Tito–Stalin split and aftermath===
{{Main|Titoism}}
In 1948, the [[Tito–Stalin split]] took place. In the first years following the split, the political repression worsened, as it extended to Communists accused of [[Stalinism]]. Hundreds of Slovenes were imprisoned in the concentration camp of [[Goli Otok]], together with thousands of people of other nationalities. Among the show trials that took place in Slovenia between 1945 and 1950, the most important were the [[Nagode trial]] against democratic intellectuals and left liberal activists (1946) and the [[Dachau trials (Slovenia)|Dachau trials]] (1947–1949), where former inmates of [[Nazi concentration camps]] were accused of collaboration with the Nazis. Many members of the Roman Catholic clergy suffered persecution. The case of bishop of Ljubljana [[Anton Vovk]], who was doused with gasoline and set on fire by Communist activists during a pastoral visit to [[Novo Mesto]] in January 1952, echoed in the western press.
<!-- Deleted image removed: [[File:Tito in Kardelj.jpg|thumb|Marshal [[Josip Broz|Josip Broz Tito]] consulting with [[Edvard Kardelj]] (right), the ideologue of the [[Communist Party of Yugoslavia]], and one of the most powerful people in Slovenia after 1945.]] -->

Between 1949 and 1953, a [[Collective farming|forced collectivization]] was attempted. After its failure, a policy of gradual liberalization followed.

===1950s: heavy industrialization===
In the late 1950s, Slovenia was the first of the Yugoslav republics to begin a process of relative pluralization. A decade of [[industrialisation]] was accompanied also by a fervent cultural and literary production with many tensions between the government and the dissident intellectuals. From the late 1950s onward, dissident circles started to be formed, mostly around short-lived independent journals, such as ''[[Revija 57]]'' (1957–1958), which was the first independent intellectual journal in Yugoslavia and one of the first of this kind in the Communist bloc,<ref>[[Taras Kermauner]], ''Slovensko perspektivovstvo'' (Znanstveno in publicistično središče, 1996).</ref> and ''[[Perspektive]]'' (1960–1964). Among the most important critical public intellectuals in this period were the sociologist [[Jože Pučnik]], the poet [[Edvard Kocbek]], and the literary historian [[Dušan Pirjevec]].

===1960s: self-management===
By the late 1960s, the reformist faction gained control of the [[Slovenian Communist Party]], launching a series of reforms, aiming at the modernization of Slovenian society and economy. A new economic policy, known as [[Workers' self-management|workers self-management]] started to be implemented under the advice and supervision of the main champion of the Yugoslav Communist Party, Slovene [[Edvard Kardelj]].{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

===1970s: years of Lead===
In 1973, the reformist trend was stopped by the conservative faction of the Slovenian Communist Party as part of a general reining in of liberal tendencies by the Yugoslav communist authorities. A period known as the "Years of Lead"{{clarify|date=November 2022}} (Slovene: ''svinčena leta'') followed.{{citation needed|reason="Years of Lead" usually refers to Italy. All the Slovenia specific references I found look suspiciously as if they got it from Wikipedia. Nothing predates 2012 when it was inserted here.|date=November 2022}}

===1980s: towards independence===
In the 1980s, Slovenia experienced a rise in cultural pluralism. Numerous grass-roots political, artistic and intellectual movements emerged, including the [[Neue Slowenische Kunst]], the [[Ljubljana school of psychoanalysis]], and the ''[[Nova revija (magazine)|Nova revija]]'' intellectual circle. By the mid-1980s, a reformist fraction, led by [[Milan Kučan]], took control of the Slovenian Communist Party, starting a gradual reform towards [[market socialism]] and controlled [[Pluralism (political philosophy)|political pluralism]].

==Slovenes in independent Slovenia==

===1990s: Slovenian Spring, democracy and independence===
The first clear demand for Slovene independence was made in 1987 by a group of intellectuals in the [[Contributions for the Slovenian National Program|57th edition]] of the magazine ''[[Nova revija (magazine)|Nova revija]]''. Demands for democratisation and increase of Slovenian independence were sparked off. A mass democratic movement, coordinated by the [[Committee for the Defense of Human Rights]], pushed the Communists in the direction of democratic reforms.
In 1991, [[Slovenia]] became an independent [[nation state]] after a brief [[Ten-Day War|ten-day war]]. In December 1991, a new [[Constitution of Slovenia|constitution]] was adopted,<ref name="Jonsson">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OegWny-r8TEC&pg=PA30 |title=Democratic Transition in Slovenia: Value Transformation, Education, And Media |editor1-first=Sabrina |editor1-last=P. Ramet |editor2-first=Danica |editor2-last=Fink-Hafner |chapter=Changing Concepts of Rights |first=Anna |last=Jonsson |page=75 |year=2006 |publisher=Texas A&M University Press |isbn=978-1-58544-525-7}}</ref> followed in 1992 by the laws on [[privatization|denationalisation and privatization]].<ref name="Klemenčič2004">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ORSMBFwjAKcC&pg=PA298 |title=The Former Yugoslavia's Diverse Peoples: A Reference Sourcebook |first1=Matjaž |last1=Klemenčič |first2=Mitja |last2=Žagar |chapter=Democratization in the Beginning of the 1990s |page=298 |isbn=978-1-57607-294-3 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |year=2004}}</ref> The members of the [[European Union]] recognised Slovenia as an independent state on 15 January 1992, and the [[United Nations]] accepted it as a member on 22 May 1992.<ref name="Borak2004">{{cite book |chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=RJ6PHRLKGxoC&pg=PA58 |title=Slovenia: From Yugoslavia to the European Union |editor1-first=Mojmir |editor1-last=Mrak |editor2-first=Matija |editor2-last=Rojec |editor3-first=Carlos |editor3-last=Silva-Jáuregui |year=2004 |series=World Bank Publications |isbn=978-0-8213-5718-7 |chapter=Institutional Setting for the New Independent State |first1=Neven |last1=Borak |first2=Bistra |last2=Borak |page=58}}</ref>

===2010s: Slovenian disillusionment with socio-economic elites===
The disillusionment with domestic socio-economic elites at municipal and the State's level was expressed at the [[2012–2013 Slovenian protests]] on a wider scale than in the smaller [[15 October 2011 global protests#Slovenia|15 October 2011 protests]] – Slovenian disillusionment with the elites and financial institutions at the European and global level.<ref>[http://www.mladina.si/118056/joachim-becker-nujno-je-treba-zavreti-poglabljanje-neoliberalizma-v-evropski-uniji-saj-je-to-slep/ Joachim Becker: "Nujno je treba zavreti poglabljanje neoliberalizma v Evropski uniji, saj je to slepa ulica"], an interview with [[Joachim Becker]], [[Mladina]], 23.11.2012</ref> In relation to the leading politicians' response to allegations made by official [[Commission for the Prevention of Corruption of the Republic of Slovenia]], law experts expressed the need for changes in the system that would limit political [[arbitrariness]].<ref>[https://www.dnevnik.si/slovenija/v-ospredju/samovolja-politikov-presega-vse-meje A Symposium of Law Experts. Political arbitrariness has gone wild.] (In Slovene: "Posvet pravnikov. Samovolja politikov presega vse meje"), Dnevnik, 18 Januar 2013.</ref>

==Identity==
{{Expand section|date=May 2012}}
{{Further|National symbols of Slovenia}}
[[File:Flag of the Slovene Nation.svg|thumb|Flag of the Slovene Nation]]
Based on a German name for the Slovenes, ''Wenden'' or ''Winden'', the first researchers of the origin of the Slovenes mistakenly believed that they were descendants of the [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]] tribe of the [[Vandals]].<ref>{{cite journal |url=http://journals.lib.washington.edu/index.php/ssj/article/download/3797/3208 |title=The Terms Wende-Winde, Wendisch-Windisch in the Historiographic Tradition of the Slovene Lands |journal=Slovene Studies |first=Rado |last=L. Lenček |author-link=Rado Lenček |volume=12 |issue=2 |year=1990 |issn=0193-1075|doi=10.7152/ssj.v12i1.3797 |doi-access=free }}</ref> Even today, some German speakers refer to the Slovenian minority in Carinthian Austria as ''[[Windische]]'', as if a separate ethnicity.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} This claim is rejected by linguists on the basis that their dialect is by all standards a variant of Slovene.{{citation needed|date=August 2023}} The first to define Slovenes as a separate branch of the Slavic people was [[Anton Tomaž Linhart]] in his work ''An Essay on the History of Carniola and Other Lands of the Austrian South Slavs'', published in 1791.<ref>{{cite book |first=Bogo |last=Grafenauer |chapter=Valvasorjevo mesto v samospoznavanju Slovencev kot posebnega naroda |language=sl |trans-chapter=Valvasor's Place in the Self-Recognition of Slovenes as an Individual Nation |title=Valvasorjev zbornik |trans-title=Valvasor's Proceedings |editor-first=Andrej |editor-last=Vovko |year=1990 |pages=7–16 |id={{COBISS|ID=23632384}}}}</ref> In it, Linhart also established the linguistic unity of the Slovene ethnic territory and set the foundations of the Slovene [[ethnography]].<ref>{{cite news |url=http://kuscholarworks.ku.edu/dspace/handle/1808/1679 |title=Jezikoslovni in jezikovni vidiki Linhartovega Poskusa zgodovine Kranjske |language=sl|trans-title=The Linguistic and the Language Aspects of Linhart's Essay on the History of Carniola |first=Najda |last=Ivanova |journal=Slovene Linguistic Studies |volume=5 |year=2005 |issn=1408-2616}}</ref>

After the [[disintegration of Yugoslavia]] during the late 1980s and the formation of independent Slovenia in the early 1990s motivated interest in a particularly Slovenian national identity. One reflection of this was an attempt at the rejection of a [[Slavic peoples|Slavic]] identity in favour of a "[[Adriatic Veneti|Venetic]]" one. The [[autochthonist]] "[[Venetic theory]]" was advanced in the mid 1980s, but it never gained wide currency. The identification with Slavic roots remains strong in Slovenia and in 2004 even led to the establishment of the [[Forum of Slavic Cultures]] in Ljubljana.

In the late 1980s, several symbols from the [[Middle Ages]] were revived as Slovenian national symbols. Among them, the most popular are the so-called [[Slovene Hat]] which featured in the coat of arms of the [[Windic march|Slovene March]], and the [[Black panther (symbol)|Black Panther]], a reconstruction of the supposed coat of arms of the [[Carolingian]] duchy of [[Carantania]]. After being used in the [[Flag of Slovenia]], the graphical representation of [[Triglav]] has become recognised as a national symbol. Per the [[Constitution of Slovenia]] and the Slovenian act on national symbols, the flag of the Slovene nation is a white-blue-red flag without the coat-of-arms. The ratio of the width to height of the flag is one to two.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.protokol.gov.si/fileadmin/protokol.gov.si/pageuploads/Temeljni_dokumenti/Act_Regulating_the_Coat-of-Arms__Flag_and_Anthem_of_the_Republic_of_Slovenia_and_the_Flag_of_the_Slovene_Nation.pdf |title=Act Regulating the Coat-of-Arms, Flag and Anthem of the Republic of Slovenia and the Flag of the Slovene Nation |author=Government of Slovenia |publisher=Protocol of the Republic of Slovenia |year=1994 |access-date=15 February 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170103091808/http://www.protokol.gov.si/fileadmin/protokol.gov.si/pageuploads/Temeljni_dokumenti/Act_Regulating_the_Coat-of-Arms__Flag_and_Anthem_of_the_Republic_of_Slovenia_and_the_Flag_of_the_Slovene_Nation.pdf |archive-date=3 January 2017 }}</ref>

===Language===
[[Freising manuscripts]] are the first written words in Slovene. Four parchment leaves and a further quarter of a page have been preserved. They consist of three texts in the oldest Slovenian dialect. Linguistic, stylistic and contextual analyses reveal that these are church texts of careful composition and literary form.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}
 
[[Primož Trubar]] (1508–1586) is the author of the first printed book in Slovene. He was a Slovenian Protestant Reformer of the Lutheran tradition.{{citation needed|date=June 2025}}

===Religion===
Most ethnic Slovenes are [[Roman Catholic]] by faith, with some historical [[Protestant]] minorities, especially [[Lutherans]] in [[Prekmurje]]. A sizable minority of Slovenes are non-religious or atheists,<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.stat.si/popis2002/si/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=8|title=Statistični urad RS - Popis 2002|website=Stat.si|access-date=12 December 2017}}</ref> according to the published data from the 2002 Slovenian census, out of a total of 47,488 Muslims (who represent 2.4% of the total population), 2,804 Muslims (who in turn represent 5.9% of the total Muslims in Slovenia) declared themselves as [[Slovenian Muslims]].<ref name = "slovenemuslims">{{cite web |url=https://www.stat.si/popis2002/en/rezultati/rezultati_red.asp?ter=SLO&st=57 |title=Population by religion and ethnic affiliation, Slovenia, 2002 Census |publisher=Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia |access-date=1 June 2018}}</ref>

==Historiography==
{{See also|List of Slavic studies journals}}

==See also==
{{portal|Slovenia}}
* [[List of Slovenes]]
* [[Carinthian Slovenes]]
* [[Hungarian Slovenes]]
* [[Prekmurje Slovenes]]
* [[Slovene minority in Italy]]

== Notes ==
{{notelist|30em}}

==References==
{{Reflist}}

{{Americana Poster}}
{{Commons category|Slovenes}}

{{Slovenia topics}}
{{Slavic ethnic groups}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Ethnic Slovene people| ]]
[[Category:South Slavs]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Slovenia]]
[[Category:Slavic ethnic groups]]