Croatia: Key information

– Area: 56,500 km2
– Inhabitants: 4.8 millions
– Capital: Zagreb (800,000 inhabitants)
– Important cities: Split (220,000 inhabitants), Rijeka (150,000), Osijek (115,000)
– Lenguage: Croatian
– Currency: Kuna (HRK)
– GDP per capita: around $14,000

Croatia: an overview

Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia (Republika Hrvatska in Croatian), is the northwestern part of the Balkans Peninsula. Croatia borders Slovenia to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia i Herzegovina and Montenegro to the south.
Croatia has several geographic regions. In the north of the country we can find the valleys of the rivers Sava and Drave, tributaries of the Danube. These are the central Croatia and Slavonia regions with plains, rolling hills and in overall very fertile lands.

To the south of the Sava River, we can already find the Dinaric Alps, forming a mountainous area with dense forests. The Adriatic coast goes from the peninsula of Istria in the northwest to the very beginning of the Kotor Bay (already in Montenegro) in the south. The Croatian coast is very irregular and made of white limestone rocks, and it has some of the most beautiful rocky beaches of Europe with turquoise clear and warm water which represents the biggest touristic attraction of Croatia. Furthermore, there are hundreds of small amazing islands very close to the coast which are idyllic paradise to enjoy peace of being just outside the rushing world in the tranquility of a maze of islands and sea.
In the interior of Croatia the weather is continental with very cold winters and hot summers. The weather is Mediterranean in the coastal branch of Croatia and in the islands with mild winters, and not so hot summers (although still very hot). Around 35% of the area of Croatia is covered by forests.
In Croatia there are several ethic nationalities with around 89% of Croats, 5% of Serbs, and other minority groups such as Slovenians, Hungarians, Italians, etc. Croatia’s main cities are Zagreb (the capital), Rijeka, Pula, Osijek, Zadar, Sibenik, Split and Dubrovnik.