Croatia

EuropeCapital city: ZagrebCapital metro: ZagrebPrime Minister: Andrej PlenkovićPresident: Zoran Milanović
2026 population
3.9M
Rank #133 globally
Area
57k km² (22k sq mi)
Metros tracked
16
63% of population in metros
Composite score
14.8
Rank #80 globally

population: Official estimate (1 Jul 2024) · indicators as of 2026-09-05 · 16 metros tracked

🗺️ Geography16 metros

Croatia metro footprint, shaded by composite tier.

Loading map…
16 polygons

Hover for rank, click to open the metro page. Boundaries derived from Overture Maps administrative divisions; metros without source coverage are omitted.

🏙️ 16 tracked metros
16 metros
🗂️ Administrative subdivisions

21 entries listed under Croatia across 2 types. Click any to see its metros and footprint.

21 total

County-level Cities (1)

📋 At a glance
Official language
Croatian
Currency
Euro (€)
Government
Republic
Legislature
Parliament of Croatia
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.

📰 In the news2 stories
Every story in the latest digest →
💹 Economy and developmentHigh income
Human Dev. Index
#40 / 191
0.889
UNDP · 2023
GDP
#72 / 193
$105.1B
World Bank · 2025
GDP per capita
#47 / 193
$27.1k
World Bank · 2025
GDP/capita (PPP)
#42 / 190
$50.9k
World Bank · 2025
GNI/capita (Atlas)
#47 / 192
$25.4k
World Bank · 2025
Life expectancy
#46 / 194
78.9 yrs
World Bank · 2024
Median age
44.8 yrs
UN WPP · 2023
Urban population
#116 / 194
58%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. growth
0.3%
World Bank · 2025
Pop. density
#117 / 193
69/km²
World Bank · 2023
Foreign-born
#47 / 193
13.6%
World Bank · 2024
Rule of law
#50 / 175
0.80
V-Dem · 2025
Gini index
#34 / 166
30.1
World Bank · 2023
Internet users
#86 / 193
84%
World Bank · 2024
Inflation
#111 / 185
3.7%
World Bank · 2025
CO₂ per capita
#136 / 192
4.8 t
Global Carbon Budget · 2024
Renewable electricity
#39 / 186
76%
Ember · 2025

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

marks a leader associated with atrocities or defiance of law, systemic subversion of democratic institutions, or a criminal conviction. Convictions arising from political persecution, and annulled convictions, are excluded. denotes a monarch. These are editorial designations, applied per entry rather than derived automatically.

Plenković era

Zoran Milanović✦ Current

2020Present

President

Tenure: 2020–presentIndependent (SDP-backed)

Andrej Plenković✦ Current

2016Present

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2016–presentCroatian Democratic Union

EU member era

Tihomir Orešković

20162016

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2016Independent

Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović

20152020

President

Tenure: 2015–2020Croatian Democratic Union

EU accession & austerity era

Zoran Milanović

20112016

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2011–2016Social Democratic Party

Ivo Josipović

20102015

President

Tenure: 2010–2015Social Democratic Party

European integration era

Jadranka Kosor

20092011

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2009–2011Croatian Democratic Union

⚠️ Ivo Sanader

20032009

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2003–2009Croatian Democratic Union

Stjepan Mesić

20002010

President

Tenure: 2000–2010Croatian People's Party

Ivica Račan

20002003

Prime Minister

Tenure: 2000–2003Social Democratic Party

Independence & founding presidency

Franjo Tuđman

19901999

President

Tenure: 1990–1999Croatian Democratic Union
📈 Power over timeThe Power Atlas →
Today
Minor#76 · 0.1%
3%5%8%10%2000
Power (headline share)Latent (material mass)Recognised (standing)
Croatia · share of world power, 1991–2026

The powerline 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.

⚔️ Conflicts since 19456 interstate wars · click to expand
Yugoslavia
Combat deaths: 5,040–7,279
Ottoman Empire,Crimean Khanate,Nogai Khanate
Combat deaths:
Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom,Wallachia,Serbian Despotate,France
Combat deaths:
Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom
Combat deaths:
Ottoman Empire,Moldavia,John Szapolyai's Hungarian kingdom
Combat deaths:

Bold = principal belligerent. Source: Wikipedia, “List of interstate wars since 1945.”

👥 Population over time
Population 2023
3.9m
#130 in the world
Since 1800
3.17×
from 1.2m
Past its peak
−19.4%
peaked at 4.8m in 1990
Share of world
0.05%
0.13% in 1800
1.2m2.4m3.6m4.8m18001850190019502000
Croatia · people, 1800–2023 · dashed to 2026 is projected

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.

Peak
1990
4.8m; already passed
2050
3.2m
95% band 2.7m to 3.9m
2100
2.1m
95% band 1.1m to 4.0m
2100 against 2025
0.56×
median falling from 2024
Deaths outnumber births
since 1991
on the UN medium path; migration decides the rest
1.3m2.5m3.8m5.1m1950197520002025205020752100

Tap or drag across the chart to read any year: the estimate to 2023, then the UN median, its bands and the scenarios.

estimateUN median80% and 95% bandshigh and low fertilityzero migration

What drives it

Births, deaths and net migration on the UN medium path, with fertility, life expectancy and median age, every decade from 1950.

1950
97k born · 47k died · 0 net migration
TFR 2.93 · life expectancy 58.5 · median age 25.4
1960
79k born · 41k died · -22k net migration
TFR 2.24 · life expectancy 65.9 · median age 28.0
1970
63k born · 44k died · -2k net migration
TFR 1.88 · life expectancy 69.2 · median age 31.2
1980
70k born · 48k died · -5k net migration
TFR 1.93 · life expectancy 71.0 · median age 32.2
1990
57k born · 52k died · +10k net migration
TFR 1.63 · life expectancy 72.2 · median age 34.6
2000
41k born · 53k died · -48k net migration
TFR 1.42 · life expectancy 74.0 · median age 38.6
2010
43k born · 52k died · -4k net migration
TFR 1.55 · life expectancy 76.7 · median age 41.0
2020
33k born · 57k died · -9k net migration
TFR 1.48 · life expectancy 77.5 · median age 44.2
Show all 16 decades
2030
30k born · 52k died · -952 net migration
TFR 1.48 · life expectancy 79.8 · median age 46.6
2040
28k born · 52k died · -275 net migration
TFR 1.50 · life expectancy 81.4 · median age 48.3
2050
25k born · 51k died · -659 net migration
TFR 1.52 · life expectancy 82.9 · median age 49.1
2060
22k born · 47k died · -800 net migration
TFR 1.53 · life expectancy 84.3 · median age 50.1
2070
21k born · 44k died · +618 net migration
TFR 1.54 · life expectancy 85.5 · median age 51.2
2080
19k born · 39k died · -352 net migration
TFR 1.55 · life expectancy 86.7 · median age 51.5
2090
17k born · 36k died · +231 net migration
TFR 1.56 · life expectancy 87.8 · median age 51.9
2100
16k born · 33k died · -50 net migration
TFR 1.56 · life expectancy 89.0 · median age 52.8

Every country to 2100 →

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
Metals & MiningReal estate

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. Click a card for the full record.

National Teams Champions

Every major championship won by Croatia's national teams, newest first. 3 in total.

2004· 2004-08-29
2003· 2003-02-02
1996· 1996-08-04