The Slovaks are a Slavic ethnic group native to the country of Slovakia in Central Europe. While Slovaks have had a shared history with Czechs on numerous occasions, the two groups are quite different: the Slovak language is more closely related to that of the Slovenes, and it it older than Czech; Slovak grammar is simpler than Czech. In addition, Czechs are more atheist while Slovaks are more Catholic, and Czechs are more closely related to Germans than the Slovaks, who were a part of Hungary for most of their history. In 2017, the world Slovak population was approximately 6,000,000, with 4,352,775 living in Slovakia, 810,000 in the United States, 147,152 in the Czech Republic, and 100,000 in Canada.