The majority of the inhabitants of Slovakia are ethnically Slovak (85.8%). Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority (9.5%). Other ethnic groups, as of the 2001 census, include Roma with 1.7%, Rusyns or Ukrainians with 1%, and other or unspecified, 1.8%. Unofficial estimates on the number of Roma population are much higher, around 9%. Before World War II, 135,000 Jews lived in Slovakia.
The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family. Hungarian is widely spoken in the southern regions and Rusyn is used in some parts of the Northeast. Minority languages hold co-official status in the municipalities in which the size of the minority population meets the legal threshold of 20%.
The Slovak constitution guarantees freedom of religion. 60.4% of Slovaks identify themselves as Roman Catholics, 9.6% as nonreligious or atheist, 6% as Protestant, 5% as Eastern Orthodox; 19% chose “other” to identify themselves. Generally about one third of church members regularly attend church services. The pre-World War II population of the country included an estimated 90,000 Jews (1.6% of the population). After the genocidal policies of the Nazi era, only about 2,300 Jews remain today (0.04% of the population).
