Croatia
population: Official estimate (1 Jul 2024) · indicators as of 5 Sep 2026 · 16 metros tracked
🗺️ Geography16 metros
Croatia metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.
Select a metro for its rank and a link to its page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.
🏙️ 16 tracked metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions
21 entries listed under Croatia across 2 types. Select any to see its metros and footprint.
Counties (20)
County-level Cities (1)
📋 At a glance
- Official language
- Croatian
- Currency
- Euro (€)
- Government
- Republic
- Legislature
- Parliament of Croatia
- Constitution
- 1990, null amendment events since
- Demonym
- Croatian
- Time zone
- UTC+01:00
- Driving side
- Right
- Calling code
- +385
- Internet TLD
- .hr
- ISO 3166
- HR
- Established
- 1991
- Highest point
- Dinara (1,831 m (6,007 ft))
- National anthem
- Lijepa naša domovino
Facts via Wikidata.
🗣️ Languages of Croatia
Croatian Standard first; 2 languages share the country; 1 official.
| Language | Share | Status | Basis |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian Standard | 99% | Official | CLDR, country |
| English | 49% | None | CLDR, country |
| Italian | 1.6% | Regional | CLDR, country |
| Venetian | 0.7% | Regional | CLDR, country |
Shares count first and second language, so they overlap and can add past 100%.
- English reach
- 49%
- Tier 3 country
- Effective languages
- 1.0
- Official-language gap
- 1%
- Croatian Standard is spoken by 99%
📰 In the news2 stories
The Rebooting · 14 Aug 2026
The bachelor lives of Croatian island guysBrian Morrissey's Balkans postcard ends on Palagruža, a Croatian island where two men maintain a lighthouse a month at a time.
The Athletic · 25 Jun 2026
Croatia revive their campaign as Panama crash outCroatia's veteran squad revived their World Cup campaign as Luka Modric earned his 200th international cap, while Panama were eliminated.
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Ranks are among sovereign countries with data; ★ marks a top-5% finish. Sources: World Bank Open Data and Our World in Data (UNDP, UN WPP, V-Dem, Global Carbon Budget, Ember, Energy Institute; CC BY 4.0). Each card credits its originating body. Renewable share is of electricity generation, not of primary energy. Each figure is the most recent year available.
Alliances & Organisations3 full memberships
Security
Political & Economic
Full memberDashed border = Candidate / ApplicantItalic = Dialogue / Observer
🏛️ Leadership History11 leaders · click to expand
is an editorial flag: associated with atrocities against civilians, systemic subversion of the constitutional order, or a criminal conviction (political persecutions and annulled convictions excluded). It is a curated list, not a measurement, so a name without one has not been cleared of anything. Hover a badge for the reason on file.
Plenković era
EU member era
EU accession & austerity era
European integration era
Independence & founding presidency
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
The power line is the headline share of world power, running from the state’s first ranked year (benchmark estimates with wide error bars before 1816). Latent power is material mass a state could mobilise (population, manpower, heavy industry). Recognised power is what the system actually treats it as (military spending, productive economy, reach, and status such as a Security Council seat or nuclear arsenal). When latent runs above recognised, a power is rising or under-rated; when recognised runs higher, it is punching above its weight or coasting on prestige. Material sub-indices run 1816 through 2016.
⚔️ Wars and conflicts6 interstate wars · click to expand
| Conflict | Years | Against | Combat deaths |
|---|---|---|---|
| Croatian War of Independence | 1991–1992 | Yugoslavia | 5,040–7,279 |
| Uskok War | 1615–1618 | Republic of Venice,Dutch Republic,Kingdom of England | — |
| Long Turkish War● | 1591–1606 | Ottoman Empire,Crimean Khanate,Nogai Khanate | — |
| Little War in Hungary | 1530–1552 | Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom,Wallachia,Serbian Despotate,France | — |
| Suleiman I's campaign of 1529 | 1529 | Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom | — |
| Hungarian campaign of 1527–1528 | 1527–1528 | Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom | — |
Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”
👥 Population over time
Our World in Data population (CC BY): UN WPP 2024 from 1950, Gapminder v7 1800-1949, HYDE 3.3 earlier; today's borders. Figures above are as of 2023, the last year that is estimated rather than forecast. The dashed tail to 2026 is a UN WPP medium-variant projection. It is drawn because the line should reach the present, and drawn differently because it has not happened yet: no rank, peak or share on this page uses it. Before 1950 the series is reconstruction rather than contemporaneous statistics, which is worth knowing when a country’s peak sits back there. The current population shown elsewhere on this page comes from the workbook and is unchanged by this. Croatia is past its peak, which is less unusual than it sounds: the two lines here can point in opposite directions, and for most of Europe and East Asia they now both point down.
👥 To 2100
The UN’s probabilistic projection for Croatia: the median with its 80% and 95% bands, the UN’s own high, low and zero-migration scenarios beside it. Not this site’s model; the site reads it and says what it implies.
What drives it
Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.
Source: United Nations, DESA, Population Division. World Population Prospects 2024. Licensed under CC BY 3.0 IGO. Estimates to 2023; projections 2024 to 2100, medium variant and probabilistic intervals. The UN revises every two years; this is the WPP 2024 revision.
💰 Billionaires1 · $2.1B combined · click to expand
Source: Forbes real-time billionaires (via the rtb-api project). Net worth as of the latest monthly snapshot.
🏆 National Teams
Croatia on the international stage. Select a card for the full record.
National Teams Champions
Every major championship won by Croatia's national teams, newest first. 3 in total.
| Year | Date | Champion | Competition |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 2004-08-29 | Croatia | Olympic men's handball |
| 2003 | 2003-02-02 | Croatia | IHF World Championship |
| 1996 | 1996-08-04 | Croatia | Olympic men's handball |