The South Slavs are a subgroup of Slavic peoples who speak the South Slavic languages.

They inhabit a contiguous region in the Balkan Peninsula, southern Pannonian Plain and eastern Alps, and are geographically separated from the body of West Slavic and East Slavic people by the Romanians, Hungarians, and Austrians. The South Slavs include the Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes. They are the main population of the Central and Southern European countries of Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Their territories have been separated from the rest of the Slavic nations since the 15th century by the modern non-Slavic states of Austria, Hungary, Romania and Moldova, leading to a differing historical progression for the South Slav nations in relation to the West and East Slavs.