Slovaks in Hungary (Slovak: Maďarskí Slováci), are the minority in Hungary. The number of people belonging to the Slovak national minority is estimated to be from 17,692 (according to provisional results of the 2001 census), to 56 107[1] Slovak speakers and 110,000 (according to minority organisations and Hungarian ministry of foreign affairs). According to this dates the population of the Slovaks in Hungary ranging from 0,18% to 1,1% from the whole Hungarian population.[2][3]
The presence of the Slovak minority in Hungary mainly dates back to the 17th and 18th century when they started settling in the northern parts of Hungary and developed strong mutual language contact with the Hungarians and later expanded to the southern counties. Following a period of Slovak demand for autonomy within Hungarian territory rivalries between Slovaks and Hungarians arose. With the Treaty of Trianon Kingdom of Hungary lost a significant part of its Slovak-speaking territory - Upper Hungary.[4] According to Hungarian data from 1900 it was 192 200 Slovaks in the territory of present-day Hungary (2.8 % of total population).[5] In the opinion of Slovak demographers, between 500 000 - 550 000 Slovaks remained in truncated Hungary after World War I.[6] According to Hungarian census 399 176 people spoke Slovak (5 %) in 1920.[7] The population movement from Hungary to Slovakia that took place after 1920 was repeated after World War II when about 73,000 Slovaks resettled from Hungary to Slovakia.[8]