Croatia country profile

Croatia's declaration of independence in 1991 was followed by four years of war and the best part of a decade of authoritarian nationalism under President Franjo Tudjman.

By early 2003 it had made enough progress in shaking off the legacy of those years to apply for EU membership, becoming the second former Yugoslav republic after Slovenia to do so.

Following protracted accession talks, Croatia joined the EU in 2013. It adopted the euro in 2023.

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REPUBLIC OF CROATIA: FACTS

• Capital: Zagreb

• Area: 56,594 sq km

• Population: 3.8 million

• Language: Croatian

• Life expectancy: 74 years (men) 80 years (women)

LEADERS

President: Zoran Milanović

Zoran Milanović won a second term as president in a landslide victory in January 2025, with almost three-quarters of the votes cast.

His opponent Dragan Primorac, who had the backing of the governing centre-right Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party. picked up just a quarter of the vote - the worst-ever result for Croatia's most powerful political force.

Presidents in Croatia fulfil a largely ceremonial role - the constitution insists they must not be a party-political figure, but act as the head of state for all citizens.

Milanović has been a frequent critic of the governing party on issues including corruption, inflation and healthcare. He is a fierce opponent of Prime Minister Andrej Plenković. Plenković has labelled Milanović "pro-Russian" and a threat to Croatia's international standing.

While Milanović condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine, he has also frequently criticised the West's military support for Kyiv.

Prime Minister: Andrej Plenković

Andrej Plenković, head of the main conservative Croatian Democratic Union (HDZ) party, won a third term as prime minister after the April 2024 parliamentary elections. Following talks after the poll, the HSZ formed a coalition with the right-wing nationalist Homeland Movement.

The main priority of Plenković's government has been to tackle a struggling economy. As part of this, he oversaw Croatia's adoption of the euro as its currency, which took place on 1 January 2023.

MEDIA

Croatia's media enjoy a high degree of independence. Croatian Radio-TV, HRT, is the state-owned public broadcaster and is financed by advertising and a licence fee.

Public TV is still the main source of news and information, but HRT is losing audience share and privately-owned Nova TV is now the top station.

National commercial networks and dozens of private local TV stations compete for viewers. The cable and satellite market is well developed.

There are three national public radio networks, four national commercial channels, regional public radios and more than 130 local and regional radios.

In the newspaper sector, there are six national and four regional dailies. Austrian and German concerns have large stakes in the print media.

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TIMELINE

The Adriatic city of Dubrovnik is a big draw for tourists

Some key dates in Croatia's history:

1918 - Croatian national assembly votes to join the new Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes on the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

1929 - The Kingdom is renamed Yugoslavia, and the system of government is further centralised under a royal dictatorship.

1921 - A unitary constitution abolishes Croatian autonomy. The main Croatian Peasant Party campaigns for its restoration.

1929 - The Kingdom is renamed Yugoslavia, and the system of government is further centralised under a royal dictatorship.

1939 - The Croatian Peasant Party negotiates a partial restoration of Croatian autonomy.

1941 - Nazi Germany invades. A "Greater Croatia" is formed, also comprising most of Bosnia and western Serbia. A fascist puppet government is installed under Ante Pavelić.

The regime acts brutally against Serbs and Jews as it seeks to create a Catholic, all-Croat republic. Hundreds of thousands lose their lives.

1945 - After a bitter resistance campaign by Communist partisans under Josep Broz Tito, Croatia becomes one of the six constituent republics of the Yugoslav socialist federation headed by Tito as prime minister.

1971 - Protestors demand greater autonomy in a movement known as the "Croatian Spring". The Yugoslav authorities denounce it as nationalism, arrest students and activists and purge the Croatian Communist Party.

1974 - A new Yugoslav federal constitution meets some of the demands for Croatian autonomy.

President Josip Broz Tito of Yugoslavia (right) shaking hands with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, 1953

1980 - Tito dies. The slow disintegration of Yugoslavia begins as individual republics assert their desire for independence.

1989 - Collapse of communism in eastern Europe leads to rise in support for parties with a nationalist programme.

1990 - First free elections in Croatia for more than 50 years. The communists lose to the conservative, nationalist HDZ led by Franjo Tudjman.

1991 - Croatia declares its independence. Croatian Serbs in the east of the country expel Croats with the aid of the Yugoslav army. By the end of the year, nearly one-third of Croatian territory is under Serb control.

1992 - The UN sets up four protected areas in Croatia, with 14,000 UN troops keeping Croats and Serbs apart.

Croatia also becomes involved in the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina (1992-5) supporting the Bosnian Croats against the Bosnian Serbs, then against the Bosniaks (Muslims). Franjo Tudjman is elected president of Croatia.

1995 - Croat forces retake three of the four areas created by the UN. Croatian Serbs flee to Bosnia and Serbia. Tudjman is one of the signatories of the Dayton peace accords ending the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina.

1996 - Croatia restores diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia. Croatia joins Council of Europe.

1997 - Tudjman re-elected as president.

1998 - Croatia resumes control over the fourth UN area, Eastern Slavonia.

1999 - Franjo Tudjman dies.

2001 - The Hague tribunal indicts former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosević for war crimes and crimes against humanity in the war in Croatia in the early 1990s.

2003 - Gen Mirko Norać, seen by many Croats as a war hero, sentenced to 12 years for killing of several dozen Serb civilians in 1991.

2004 - Wartime Croatian Serb leader Milan Babić jailed for by Hague tribunal for his part in war crimes against non-Serbs in self-proclaimed Krajina Serb republic where he was leader in the early 1990s.

2009 - Croatia joins Nato.

2010 - Visit of President Josipović to Belgrade signals thawing of relations with Serbia.

2011 - Two senior Croatian generals, Ante Gotovina and Mladen Markac, are convicted for war crimes against Serbs in 1995 by the UN War Crimes Tribunal in the Hague - the convictions are overturned a year later.

2013 - Croatia becomes the EU's 28th member.

2015 - Kolinda Grabar-Kiratović is elected Croatia's first female president.

2023 - Croatia joins the EU's border-free Schengen zone and ditches its own currency, the kuna, for the euro.

An aerial view of the Croatian capital, Zagreb