Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats who are Catholic. Minority groups include Orthodox Serbs, Muslims, Hungarians and others.
The demographic transition is completed -- the natural growth rate is minute. Life expectancy and literacy rates are reasonably high.
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2 Changes in late 20th century 3 See also 4 External links |
Population:
4,422,248 (July 2003 est.)
Age structure:
Median age:
Population growth rate:
0.31% (2003 est.)
Birth rate:
12.76 births/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Death rate:
11.25 deaths/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Net migration rate:
1.61 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2003 est.)
Sex ratio:
Infant mortality rate:
Life expectancy at birth:
Total fertility rate:
1.93 children born/woman (2003 est.)
HIV/AIDS - adult prevalence rate:
less than 0.1% (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - people living with HIV/AIDS:
200 (2001 est.)
HIV/AIDS - deaths:
less than 10 (2001 est.)
Nationality:
Ethnic groups:
Census 2001 [1]:
Croat 89.6%, Serb 4.5%, Bosniak 0.5%, Hungarian 0.4%, Slovenian 0.3%, Czech 0.2%, Albanian 0.3%, Montenegrin 0.1%, Roma 0.2%, others 3.9%
Religions:
Census 2001 [1]:
Roman Catholic 87.8%, Orthodox 4.4%, Muslim 1.3%, Protestant 0.3%, others and unknown 6.2%
Languages:
Croatian 96,12%, Serbian 1,01%, other 4% (including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, and German) (2001)
Literacy:
Census of 1991 was the last one held before the war in Croatia, marked by ethnic conflict between the Orthodox Serbs and the Catholic Croats. In the ethnic and religious composition of population of Croatia of that time, those two sets of numbers are quoted as important:
Statistical indicators
0-14 years: 18.3% (male 415,873; female 394,414)
15-64 years: 66.1% (male 1,465,488; female 1,454,778)
65 years and over: 15.6% (male 258,943; female 432,752)
(2003 est.)
total: 38.9 years
male: 37.1 years
female: 40.7 years
(2002)
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.05 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.6 male(s)/female
total population: 0.94 male(s)/female
(2003 est.)
total: 6.92 deaths/1,000 live births
female: 6.01 deaths/1,000 live births
male: 7.78 deaths/1,000 live births
(2003 est.)
total population: 74.37 years
male: 70.76 years
female: 78.2 years
(2003 est.)
noun: Croatian(s)
adjective: Croatian
definition: age 15 and over can read and write
total population: 98.5%
male: 99.4%
female: 97.8%
(2003 est.)Changes in late 20th century
After the end of the war of the 1990s and everything else that it entailed, the numbers are:
The population change due to ethnic cleansing can be illustrated with the map below:
The incidents of ethnic cleansing spanned over five years. North-western Slavonia (Bilogora) was depopulated of its Serbs in December 1991. The Medak pocket in 1993, Western Slavonia (Okucani, Pakrac) in May 1995 and the rest of the Krajina in August 1995. Following 1998, the number of Serbs being pressured to leave Eastern Slavonia increased. Croat obstruction of refugee return and a lack of willingness to accept guilt on the Croat side (the prosecution of war criminals and the acknolewdgement of ethnic cleansing) is one of the main obstacles of Croatia's integration into the European Union.
The methods used by the Croat government to obstruct return vary: secret lists of so-called war crimes suspects (basically anyone who fought in the war) unfavourable property laws, ethnic discrimination by local authorities, and last but not the least, appalling economic conditions in the rural areas they inhabited. The property laws, in particular, favor Croats who immigrated into the previously predominantly Serb-inhabited areas after having been forced out of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the Serbs.
See also
External links
