Croatia

Croatia is a country in Europe.

On a map, it is curved like a thin new moon. It has a long seaside with lots of islands. It has mountains and flat green farmland too. The capital city is called Zagreb.

Croatia is a country in southeastern Europe, in the northwest of the Balkan Peninsula. On a map it is shaped like a crescent, a curved shape like a thin new moon. The top arm of the crescent is flat farmland, the middle is a belt of limestone mountains, and the long coast runs along the Adriatic Sea.

The capital, Zagreb, is in the north, on the Sava River. About 3.87 million people lived in Croatia in the middle of 2025. Croatia joined the European Union in 2013 and began using the euro in 2023.

Croatia lies in the northwestern Balkan Peninsula; Britannica calls it small yet highly diverse in geography. Its upper arm, Croatia-Slavonia, runs along the Pannonian and para-Pannonian plains; Istria occupies the peninsula of that name on the northern Adriatic; and Dalmatia follows the coastal strip south to the Gulf of Kotor. Although these regions were ruled for centuries by foreign powers, Britannica notes that they stayed Western-oriented in culture, with Roman law, the Latin alphabet and western European institutions.

The Croatian Bureau of Statistics (DZS) estimated 3,874,993 inhabitants in mid-2025, 8,760 more than a year earlier, with 777,744 in the City of Zagreb. Croatia, part of Yugoslavia for much of the 20th century, became independent in 1991, joined the EU in 2013 and adopted the euro in 2023.

Zagreb is the biggest city in Croatia.

Dubrovnik is an old town by the sea. Tall walls go around most of the old town. In Split, parts of an old Roman palace stand all through the city. In Pula there is a huge oval Roman arena.

Zagreb, the capital, is the country's biggest city. After the Second World War its metropolitan population more than doubled as people moved from the countryside. About 777,700 people lived in the City of Zagreb in 2025.

On the coast, Dubrovnik became an important sea power from the 1200s. Its walls surround Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque palaces, fountains and churches. In Split, the ruins of the palace of the Roman emperor Diocletian, built around the year 300, are spread through the city. At Pula, in Istria, a Roman amphitheater completed about the year 80 could seat 23,000 people.

Zagreb, on the Sava, more than doubled its metropolitan population in the post-war period of rapid urbanization; DZS estimated 777,744 residents in the City of Zagreb in mid-2025, about a fifth of the national total.

UNESCO inscribed the Old City of Dubrovnik in 1979: the 'Pearl of the Adriatic' became an important Mediterranean sea power from the 13th century and kept its Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings despite a severe earthquake in 1667. Britannica describes Ragusa (Dubrovnik) as a largely Croat merchant republic that kept a precarious autonomy and, with other Dalmatian cities in the 16th and 17th centuries, became the center of the Croat Renaissance. Split's historical complex (1979) grew within the ruins of Diocletian's Palace, built between the late 3rd and early 4th centuries, with a medieval cathedral reusing materials from the emperor's mausoleum. Pula's elliptical Roman amphitheater was completed about 80 CE and seated 23,000.

Croatia has a long, rocky seaside.

There are more than 1,100 islands. In the mountains, water flows under the ground. At Plitvice, many waterfalls join a long chain of lakes. The tallest mountain is called Dinara.

Croatia's coastline is about 1,800 kilometers long, and more than 1,100 islands and islets lie off it. Behind the coast rise the Dinaric Alps, made mostly of limestone. Much of the water there flows through underground rivers and pools, which shape many unusual rock formations and landscapes. The highest mountain, Dinara, is 1,831 meters tall.

At Plitvice Lakes National Park, water flowing over limestone and chalk has built natural rock dams of travertine over thousands of years, creating a chain of lakes, caves and waterfalls. The coast has a mild Mediterranean climate, with sunny, dry summers in the south, while the plains in the north have warm summers and cold winters.

Croatia has three major regions: the Pannonian and para-Pannonian plains of the north and northeast, enriched with alluvium from the Sava and Drava and forming the country's breadbasket; the central mountain belt, part of the Dinaric Alps, whose limestone karst plateaus are barren at the top and forested lower down, with Dinara (1,831 m) the highest peak; and the littoral of Istria and Dalmatia, whose 1,800 km of coastline is fringed by more than 1,100 islands and islets. Much water circulates in underground rivers and pools of the karst.

UNESCO describes how, at Plitvice Lakes (1979), waters flowing over limestone and chalk have deposited travertine barriers over thousands of years, creating natural dams and a series of lakes, caves and waterfalls, a process that continues today. The plains and mountains have a continental climate (around 0 °C in January and low 20s °C in June on the plains, with extremes of −20 °C and 40 °C), and the coast a Mediterranean one shaped by the jugo (sirocco) in the south and the cold northeast bora in the north.

Bears and wolves live in the forests.

Lizards live by the sea. Hares, foxes and wild pigs live in Croatia too. Lots of sea animals live in the Adriatic Sea.

Croatia's plants and animals are very varied because its land is so different from place to place. Lizards live along the warm coast, while wolves and even bears live in the inland forests. Hares, foxes, wild boars, wildcats and mouflon, a kind of wild sheep, also live there.

The forests of Plitvice Lakes National Park are home to bears, wolves and many rare birds. People grow grapes and olives on the Dalmatian coast, fir trees cover much of Istria, and Slavonia in the east has many oak forests. The Adriatic Sea is rich in sea life, and underwater caves there are habitats for it.

Britannica links the variety of Croatia's flora and fauna to its varied geography. On the Dalmatian coast grapes and olives are grown for wine and oil, Istria is dominated by firs, and Slavonia has many oak forests. Lizards are found on the coast, and wolves and bears in the inland forests; hares, foxes, boars, wildcats and mouflons also inhabit the country, and Adriatic sea life is rich, with underwater caves serving as habitats.

UNESCO notes that the forests of Plitvice Lakes National Park, Croatia's largest national park at almost 30,000 hectares, are home to bears, wolves and many rare bird species. In Dalmatia, the Krka and Cetina are important rivers because they flow into the Adriatic and have hydroelectric potential.

About 3.87 million people live in Croatia.

Most people speak Croatian. Fish, olive oil and stuffed cabbage leaves are typical foods. At weddings, people may dance the kolo, often in a circle.

About 3.87 million people lived in Croatia in 2025, and more than half of them live in towns and cities, mostly in the north and along the coast. Most people speak Croatian, a Slavic language written in the Latin alphabet. Smaller groups of Serbs, Bosniaks, Hungarians, Italians and others live there too.

Croatian cooking mixes Turkish, central European and Italian flavors. Cabbage leaves stuffed with meat, grilled meat rolls called ćevapčići, and dumplings are popular, and along the coast fish is served with blitva, Swiss chard with potatoes, garlic and olive oil. Music played on the tamburitza, a stringed instrument like a mandolin, has many fans, and the kolo, a group dance often done in a circle, is still danced at weddings and festivals.

DZS estimated 3,874,993 people in mid-2025, 51.1 percent of them women. Britannica gives Croats as about nine-tenths of the population; Serbs, the largest minority, fell from more than a tenth before the 1990s war to less than half that by 2001, and there are small Bosniak, Hungarian, Italian and Slovene groups. Croatian is a South Slavic language written in the Latin alphabet, close to Serbian and Bosnian; its standard form, based on the Shtokavian dialect, emerged in the 19th century, while Chakavian and Kajkavian dialects are still spoken. Croats are overwhelmingly Roman Catholic and Serbs overwhelmingly Eastern Orthodox. More than half the population is urban.

The literary tradition dates to about 1100 and the Baška Tablet, a stone inscribed in Glagolitic script found on the island of Krk. Cuisine shows Turkish, central European and Italian influences: stuffed cabbage, ćevapčići, dumplings, pickles, fish with blitva, cheese from the island of Pag and Dalmatian wine. The Zagreb school of animation won an Academy Award in 1961, and tamburitza music and the kolo dance remain popular.