About 60% of the population live in urban centres, and one in four live in one of the four largest cities (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka, Osijek).

Celebrating Croatia’s admission into the UN on the main square in Zagreb upon the return of President Tuđman from New York on 24 May 1992. Croatia declared its independence on 25 June 1991, confirmed this decision on 8 October 1991 at the expiration of the moratorium, and was recognised by the international community on 15 January 1992.

Ivan Meštrović, Fountain of Life, a sculpture in front of the Croatian National Theatre in Zagreb. Life expectancy in Croatia is 80 years for women and 73 years for men.

The Zagreb–Split motorway (A1), Žuta Lokva intersection. Croatia has over 1,250 km of motorways, of which about 1,000 km were built in the last fifteen years. Brinje Tunnel, on the A1 motorway, was awarded the FIA prize in Brussels in 2008 as one of the safest tunnel in Europe.

The most popular sports in Croatia are football, basketball, handball and water polo. According to the FIFA rankings in June 2013, the Croatian football team ranks 4th in the world, behind Spain, Germany and Argentina.

Language

The Croatian language belongs to the South Slavic group of languages. It is the official language of the Republic of Croatia, and is also spoken by Croats in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia (Vojvodina), Montenegro (Bay of Kotor), Austria ...

Sport

Croatians are a sporting nation; sport is part of the compulsory curriculum in schools at all levels of education. Many children and young people take part in extracurricular sporting activities, which are also seen as a way of life in recreational terms ...

Fine arts

Works preserved from the oldest stylistic periods bear witness to the continuity of creativity and to the talents of local people, and place the Croatian art and architecture heritage on an equal footing with the main components of world creative output ...

Judicial power

Judicial power is exercised by the courts, which are autonomous and independent. According to the law, bodies of state authority are obliged to protect the Constitution and laws confirmed by the legal order of the Republic of Croatia and to guarantee the uniform ...

Emergence of Croatia

The first Slavic tribes arrived in the area which is modern-day Croatia in the 6th and 7th centuries, during the Migration Period. Among them were the Croats, who are mentioned in sources in connection with a wider area, but were ethnically most ...

Gastronomy

The main feature of Croatian cuisine is its diversity, so it is impossible to single out a typical cuisine or typical dish. Different natural and economic circumstances and diverse cultural influences have affected the development of several ...

Development of the state

The names Croat and Croatia in the country as it is today have gradually superseded the ethnically wider concept of the Slavs and their first territorial groupings, Sklavonija, Slovinje (Sclaviniae), and the individual ...

Croatia in brief

Croatia has been present on the contemporary international political stage since its independence from the Yugoslav Federation, i.e. for a little over two decades, but in terms of history and culture, is one of the oldest European countries ...