The official language of the Slovene Republic - a minority language in Austria, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia - is on the rise, despite lacking officially recognition in those states. The total number of speakers is somewhere between 50,000 and 100,000. According to the 2001 census the use of Slovene has increased in the region of Styria, where 2,192 inhabitants use it as their colloquial language. The director of a Styrian cultural organization says, “It is realistic to say that the real number of speakers is even double or triple that many. This is a very positive development. We have an overall increase of 30% and an increase of 80% in the smallest districts.” With this affirmation, Styrians will begin a political initiative for recognition of their region, as they are currently not represented on the Austrian advisory board for ethnic minorities.
