General Information

Capital:

Zagreb 762,770 (1991 est.)

Area:

56,538 sq km (21,829 sq mi)

Form of government

Bicameral Republic, presidential/parliamentary democracy

GDP per capita

Purchasing power parity-$5,100 (1999 est.)

Population

4,676,865 (July 1999 est.)

Ethnic composition

Croat - 78%

Serb - 12%

Muslim - 0.9%

Hungarian - 0.5%

Slovenian - 0.5%

Others - 8.1%

Updated (January 2005)

The latest census in the Republic of Croatia was conducted in 2001¹ (the official results were published in 2002).

The census revealed that the total number of the Croatian population decreased by approximately 7 percent (from 4,784,265 to 4,437,460). The number of Croats increased by 11.53 percent (from 78.1 percent to 89.63 percent) while the number of people belonging to national minorities decreased by about 50 percent and reached 7.47 percent (331,383 people) of the country's population.

A comparison between the results of the 1991 and 2001 Census confirmed earlier speculations on the changes of the ethnic structure in Croatia.

The 2001 Census recorded data on twenty-two different ethnic minority communities.

^Փ (Ukrainians 1,977; Russians 906; Jews 576; Polish 567; Romanians 475; Bulgarians 331; Turks 300; Austrians 247 and Vlachs 12)

Additionally, 19,677 persons declare themselves Muslims.

Source: Shadow Report on the Implementation of the Framework Convention for Protection of the Rights of National Minorities in the Republic of Croatia, the implementation period between 1999 and 2004, submitted to Council of Europe, Directorate General of Human Rights Secretariat of the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, July 2004, http://dev.eurac.edu:8085/mugs2/do/blob.html?type=html&serial=1099581607468

¹ This census was the first official census conducted in the Republic of Croatia since its declaration of independence and disintegration of the former SFRY.

Official Language(s)

Croatian language and the Latin script

Minority Language(s)

Serbian, Bosnian, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, German, Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Albanian, Romany, Macedonian, Montenegrin, Hebrew

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