Croatia

Croatia Background

The lands that today comprise Croatia were part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire until the close of World War I. In 1918, the Croats, Serbs, and Slovenes formed a kingdom known after 1929 as Yugoslavia. Following World War II, Yugoslavia became a federal independent Communist state under the strong hand of Marshal TITO. Although Croatia declared its independence from Yugoslavia in 1991, it took four years of sporadic, but often bitter, fighting before occupying Serb armies were mostly cleared from Croatian lands. Under UN supervision, the last Serb-held enclave in eastern Slavonia was returned to Croatia in 1998.

Croatia Information

• Population: 4,496,869 (July 2004 est.)
• Nationality: noun: Croat(s), Croatian(s) adjective: Croatian
• Location:: Southeastern Europe, bordering the Adriatic Sea, between Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovenia
• Religions:: Roman Catholic 87.8%, Orthodox 4.4%, Muslim 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, others and unknown 6.2% (2001)
• Ethnic Groups:: 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)
• Land Boundaries:: total: 2,197 km border countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina 932 km, Hungary 329 km, Serbia and Montenegro (north) 241 km, Serbia and Montenegro (south) 25 km, Slovenia 670 km
• Area: total: 56,542 sq km water: 128 sq km land: 56,414 sq km
• Coast Line: 5,835 km (mainland 1,777 km, islands 4,058 km)
• Climate: Mediterranean and continental; continental climate predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild winters, dry summers along coast
• Terrain: geographically diverse; flat plains along Hungarian border, low mountains and highlands near Adriatic coastline and islands
• Maritime Claims: territorial sea: 12 nm continental shelf: 200-m depth or to the depth of exploitation
• Land Use: arable land: 26.09% permanent crops: 2.27% other: 71.65% (2001)
• Environmental Issues: air pollution (from metallurgical plants) and resulting acid rain is damaging the forests; coastal pollution from industrial and domestic waste; landmine removal and reconstruction of infrastructure consequent to 1992-95 civil strife
• Natural Resources: oil, some coal, bauxite, low-grade iron ore, calcium, gypsum, natural asphalt, silica, mica, clays, salt, hydropower
• Highways: total: 28,123 km paved: 23,792 km (including 410 km of expressways) unpaved: 4,331 km (2000)
• Railways: total: 2,726 km standard gauge: 2,726 km 1.435-m gauge (984 km electrified) (2003)
• Ports & Harbours: Dubrovnik, Dugi Rat, Omisalj, Ploce, Pula, Rijeka, Sibenik, Split, Vukovar (inland waterway port on Danube), Zadar
• Airports: 68 (2003 est.)