Molise Croats (Croatian: Moliški Hrvati) live in the Molise region of Italy in the villages Acquaviva Collecroce (Croatian: Kruč), San Felice del Molise (Croatian: Štifilić), Montemitro (Croatian: Mundimitar) and elsewhere. In these three villages they are a majority. There are about 5,000 speakers of the Molise Croatian dialect. Additionally, there are about 1,000 people in other parts of Italy and emigrants in other countries originating from these villages.

These three villages are the descendants of colonies of Croat refugees (due to the Ottoman advance), that appeared in the Italian southern Adriatic hinterland (from Marche to Puglia) in the 15th century.

The Molise Croat community is split on ethnic identify: they may declare Croat or Italian; the speak the Molise Croat dialect as a communal tongue, alongside Italian which is their national language. Milena Lalli, a poet born to local parents in Rome, studied Slavic languages in the 1970s and acquired a sizeable literary Croatian vocabulary to replace the numerous Italian borrowings in her dialect. These Croatian words and even whole expressions are translated in parentheses or off to the side into proper Italian; so also in translations from Croatian.

Croats (Croatian: Hrvati) are a South Slavic ethnic group mostly living in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and nearby countries. There are around 4 million Croats living inside Croatia and up to 4.5 million throughout the rest of the world. Responding to political, social and economic pressure, many Croats have migrated throughout the world, and established a notable Croatian diaspora. Large Croat communities exists in The United States, Chile, Argentina, Germany, Austria, Australia, Peru, Canada, Serbia, New Zealand and South Africa. Croats are noted for their culture, which has been influenced by a number of other neighbouring cultures through the ages. The strongest influences came from Central Europe and the Mediterranean where, at the same time, Croats have made their own contribution. The Croats are predominantly Catholic with minor groups of Protestants, Muslims, Orthodox, Jews and secular non religious atheists and agnostics. Their language is Croatian.

Croatia is the nation state of the Croats, while in the adjacent Bosnia and Herzegovina they are one of the three constituent peoples alongside Bosniaks and Serbs.

Coordinates: 41°41′59″N 14°36′40″E / 41.6997°N 14.6111°E / 41.6997; 14.6111

Molise (pronounced [moˈliːze]) (Molisano: Mulise) is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly (until 1963) part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise (with Abruzzo) and now a separate entity. The region covers 4,438 km² and has a population of about 300,000.

Molise is the newest Italian region, since it was established in 1963, when the region Abruzzi e Molise was split in two. It became effective only in 1970.

Though there is a large Fiat plant (Termoli), the industrial sector is dominated by the building industry with small and medium-sized farms spread widely throughout the region. Another important industry is food processing: pasta, meat, milk products, oil and wine are the traditional products of the region. In the services sector the most important industries are distribution, hotels and catering, followed by transport and communications, banking and insurance. With few exceptions, in all sectors firms are small, and this explains the difficulties encountered when marketing products on a national scale.

The following is a list of prominent individuals who were Croatian citizens or of Croatian ancestry.

Rade Šerbedžija - actor

People with Croatian ancestry but high-ranked officials of other countries:

David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host and comedian. He hosts the late night television talk show, Late Show with David Letterman, broadcast on CBS. Letterman has been a fixture on late night television since the 1982 debut of Late Night with David Letterman on NBC. Letterman recently surpassed friend and mentor Johnny Carson for having the longest late-night hosting career in the United States of America.

Letterman is also a television and film producer. His company Worldwide Pants produces his show as well as its network follow-up The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson. Worldwide Pants has also produced several prime-time comedies, the most successful of which was Everybody Loves Raymond, currently in syndication.

In 1996, David Letterman was ranked #45 on TV Guide's 50 Greatest TV Stars of All Time.

Letterman was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. His father, Harry Joseph Letterman (April 1915 – February 1973), was a florist of British descent; his mother Dorothy Letterman (née Hofert, now Dorothy Mengering), a Presbyterian church secretary of German descent, is an occasional figure on the show, usually at holidays and birthdays.