Country Information - Croatia

Republic of Croatia

President: Stipe Mesic (2000)

Prime Minister: Ivo Sanader (2003)

Area: 21,831 sq mi (56,542 sq km)

Population (2005 est.): 4,495,904 (growth rate: 0.0%); birth rate: 9.6/1000; infant mortality rate: 6.8/1000; life expectancy: 74.5; density per sq mi: 206

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Zagreb, 685,500

Other large cities: Split, 173,600; Rijeka, 142,500; Osijek, 89,600

Monetary unit: Kuna

Language: Croatian 96% (official), other 4% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, German)

Ethnicity/race: Croat 89.6%, Serb 4.5%, Bosniak 0.5%, Hungarian 0.4%, Slovene 0.3%, Czech 0.2%, Roma 0.2%, Albanian 0.1%, Montenegrin 0.1%, others 4.1% (2001)

Religions: Roman Catholic 87.8%, Orthodox 4.4%, Muslim 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, others and unknown 6.2% (2001)

Literacy rate: 99% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2004 est.): $50.33 billion; per capita $11,200. Real growth rate: 3.7%. Inflation: 2.5%. Unemployment: 13.8%. Arable land: 26%. Agriculture: wheat, corn, sugar beets, sunflower seed, barley, alfalfa, clover, olives, citrus, grapes, soybeans, potatoes; livestock, dairy products. Labor force: 1.71 million; agriculture 13.2%, industry 25.4%, services 46.4% (2002). Industries: chemicals and plastics, machine tools, fabricated metal, electronics, pig iron and rolled steel products, aluminum, paper, wood products, construction materials, textiles, shipbuilding, petroleum and petroleum refining, food and beverages; tourism. Natural resources: oil, some coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, calcium, natural asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, hydropower. Exports: $6.355 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): transport equipment, textiles, chemicals, foodstuffs, fuels. Imports: $12.86 billion (f.o.b., 2003 est.): machinery, transport and electrical equipment, chemicals, fuels and lubricants, foodstuffs. Major trading partners: Italy, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Germany, Slovenia, Austria, Russia, France.

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 1,721,139 (2000); mobile cellular: 1.3 million (2001). Radio broadcast stations: AM 16, FM 98, shortwave 5 (1999). Radios: 1.51 million (1997). Television broadcast stations: 36 (plus 321 repeaters) (September 1995). Televisions: 1.22 million (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 9 (2000). Internet users: 480,000 (2001).

Transportation: Railways: total: 2,296 km (2002). Highways: total: 28,123 km; paved: 23,792 km (including 410 km of expressways); unpaved: 4,331 km (2000). Waterways: 785 km perennially navigable; large sections of Sava blocked by downed bridges, silt, and debris. Ports and harbors: Dubrovnik, Dugi Rat, Omisalj, Ploce, Pula, Rijeka, Sibenik, Split, Vukovar (inland waterway port on Danube), Zadar Airports: 59 (2002).

International disputes: discussions continue with Bosnia and Herzegovina on sections of the Una River and villages at the base of Mount Pljesevica; parliamentarians are far from ratifying the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which would have ceded most of Pirin Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and several villages to Croatia; in late 2002, Croatia and Serbia and Montenegro adopted an interim agreement to settle the disputed Prevlaka Peninsula, allowing the withdrawal of the UN monitoring mission (UNMOP), but discussions could be complicated by the inability of Serbia and Montenegro to come to an agreement on the economic aspects of the new federal union; Croatia and Italy continue to debate bilateral property and ethnic minority rights issues stemming from border changes after the Second World War.