Slavs
Countries with majority ethnic Slavs Countries with minority ethnic Slavs
Countries with minority ethnic Slavs (less than 10% of the population) | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| c. 300 million (2014) See § Population | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Slavic languages, local sign languages | |
| Religion | |
| Mostly Christianity (Eastern Orthodoxy · Roman Catholicism · Protestantism · Spiritual Christianity) Minorities: Irreligious · Islam · Judaism · Slavic paganism (neo-paganism) | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| Other Indo-European-speaking peoples, especially Balts |
The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and Northern Asia, though there is a large Slavic minority scattered across the Baltic states and Central Asia, and a substantial Slavic diaspora in the Americas, Western Europe, and Northern Europe.
Early Slavs lived during the Migration Period and the Early Middle Ages (approximately from the 5th to the 10th century AD), and came to control large parts of Central, Eastern, and Southeast Europe between the sixth and seventh centuries. Beginning in the 7th century, they were gradually Christianized. By the 12th century, they formed the core population of a number of medieval Christian states: East Slavs in the Kievan Rus', South Slavs in the Bulgarian Empire, the Principality of Serbia, the Duchy of Croatia and the Banate of Bosnia, and West Slavs in the Principality of Nitra, Great Moravia, the Duchy of Bohemia, and the Kingdom of Poland.
Beginning in the mid-19th century, a pan-Slavic movement has emphasized the common heritage and unity of all the Slavic peoples. The movement was particularly influential in the Balkans. While the Russian Empire’s stance toward the movement was complex and sometimes cautious, many Pan-Slavists looked to Russia for support rather than viewing it as an outright opponent.
The Slavic languages belong to the Balto-Slavic branch of the Indo-European language family. Present-day Slavs are classified into three groups:
- West Slavs (Czechs, Kashubians, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks, and Sorbs);
- East Slavs (Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians);
- South Slavs (Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Gorani, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Pomaks, Serbs, Slovenes and Torbeši).
Though the majority of Slavs are Christians, some groups, such as the Bosniaks, mostly identify as Muslims. Modern Slavic nations and ethnic groups are considerably diverse, both genetically and culturally, and relations between them may range from "ethnic solidarity to mutual feelings of hostility" — even within the individual groups.