December 5, 2022 - For the fifth year in a row, Hanza Media and the Gradonacelnik.hr portal selected the best cities in five categories based on detailed analysis and with two special awards, Smart City and Eco City. This year, Vukovar won the title of the best Croatian city in the categories of education, youth, demography, and social policy.

Ivan Penava, the mayor of Vukovar, attended the award ceremony in Opatija on December 1.

"According to FINA data, competent ministries, and specialised agencies, Vukovar is constantly at the top of numerous rankings in Croatia according to various parameters, from investment in education, youth and family, the number of children enrolled in kindergartens, to the total income of entrepreneurs in 2021. I consider it my duty to keep Vukovar at the top and make it the best. This award achieved in the competition of big cities is the crown of many years of dedicated work of the City Administration of the City of Vukovar and is a confirmation of the enormous progress of Vukovar," said mayor Penava.

According to research based on data from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia, data from FINA on the execution of the budget in 2021, and analysis by the portal Gradonacelnik.hr, the City of Vukovar ranked 5^th in the Republic of Croatia in terms of allocations for education.

In 2020, regarding allocations for family and children, the City of Vukovar took 3^rd place with 193.75 kuna allocated per capita and 9^th place with 2.19% of total city budget expenditures assigned.

Recall, the gift amounts of the City of Vukovar for newborn children were increased in 2021, and the City of Vukovar was the first city in the Republic of Croatia to introduce a unique demographic measure of co-financing overhead costs for families with three or more children up to 16 years of age.

Vukovar also stands out for with some of the lowest prices of kindergartens in the Republic of Croatia, which is 490 kuna for the first child, 441 kuna for the second child, while kindergarten is free for the third and every subsequent child, and from this year, the afternoon shift is also provided in Vukovar kindergartens.

In Vukovar, in recent years, the city's kindergartens have recorded a constant and continuous increase in the number of children enrolled. According to independent research, Vukovar is the second city in Croatia regarding the number of children enrolled in kindergartens!

For years, the city of Vukovar has been providing primary school students with the necessary school materials as well as the help of teaching assistants. Through an EU project, free meals have been provided to all students at risk of poverty.

Extended stays have been introduced in 6 out of 7 primary schools (expected from the summer semester and in the remaining newly renovated school of N. Andrić), Christmas presents have been a must for all the children of Vukovar, as well as free summer holidays on the Adriatic for the most successful primary school students.

Through high school education, the City of Vukovar supports young people by fully financing city bus transport tickets, co-financing intercity bus transport tickets, and providing stipends for high school students in deficit occupations in the amount of HRK 400.

It helps students from the area of the city with scholarships of 500 to 1000 kuna, it co-finances the intercity transport of regular students in the area of two counties - Vukovar-Syrmia and Osijek-Baranja, and the best ones who finish the academic year with an average of 4.50 to 5.00 are rewarded by the city of Vukovar with 1000 kuna.

It should also be noted that the works on the renovation of the new building of the Polytechnic Lavoslav Ružička Vukovar have been completed, so Vukovar students will soon enjoy the highest standards of education. The project is part of the Intervention Plan of the City of Vukovar, and its total value is HRK 66,439,727.54.

The housing program for the necessary staff in the area of Vukovar is also being successfully implemented, so in the last three years, 59 staff apartments have been allocated using this model.

Bjelovar, Čakovec, Pazin, and Velika Gorica also competed in this category. The City of Vukovar sincerely congratulated them and all other nominated cities and award winners.

For more, make sure to check out our dedicated Lifestyle section.

Numerous Croatian cities of all different sizes and in various locations across the country have been proclaimed ''the best'' in their respective areas, and the winners were announced at a popular hotel in Šibenik.

As Novac/Vedran Marjanovic writes on the 4th of October, 2019, Zagreb's triumph was being chosen as the best big city in terms of quality of life, Pula was proclaimed the best big city in terms of economy, and individual awards went to to Koprivnica for ECO City and Dubrovnik for Smart City.

These are the most anticipated decisions in this year's selection for the ''Best Cities'', organised by Jutarnji list, Gradonacelnik.hr and the Ipsos agency, which ended with the finals at the Amadria Hotel in Šibenik as part of the Regional Development and EU Funds Day organised by the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds.

In addition to Zagreb, Poreč (in the competition of medium-sized cities) and Krk (in the competition of small towns) both won the titles of the best in the quality of life category. Poreč thus defended the title of the best that it also took home last year.

In the category of education, demography, youth and social policy, Pazin (big city), Labin (middle-sized city) and Cres (small city) were all named as winners.

Awards to the best cities for the withdrawing of money from EU funds went to Zadar (big city), Križevci (medium city) and Ludbreg (small city). For the second year in a row, Križevci received the award for being the best city in terms of the withdrawal of EU funds, with the difference being that only one Croatian city received this award last year, and this year, three managed to win.

Koprivnica won the title of ECO City for the best solutions in waste management and environmental protection, with its competition having been the other continental Croatian cities of Ludbreg, Čakovec, Belišće and Jastrebarsko, which won last year in this category.

In the competition for the Smart City award for the best practices and solutions in the application of smart technologies, Dubrovnik triumphed, and its competition was Rijeka, Varaždin, Bjelovar and Jastrebarsko.

Zagreb won the title of Best in the competition for quality of life in big cities, with its competition having been Samobor, Čakovec, Varazdin and Dubrovnik. Zagreb is "number one" among large Croatian cities, by, among other factors, the average per capita income (which stands at 44,733 kuna) and by the number of highly educated people living there.

The Croatian capital is therefore among the top three big Croatian cities by the criteria of original budget revenues, the gross wages of employees, the share of tax revenues in the budget, and the share of subsidies for urban transport in the city budget.

The evaluation of Croatian cities in terms of the quality of life was conducted by an expert jury and done so according to nine criteria. The criteria saw city budgets analysed, and several things were taken into account, they included budgetary allocations for environmental protection, sport, culture, and waste management. As part of this research, a survey was conducted among residents about the quality of life in their respective communities.

Pula was crowned as this year's winner of the selection of the largest cities when it comes to the economy. In the final competition with Pula in this category were last year's winner - Varaždin, as well as Rijeka, Samobor and Dubrovnik.

Pazin managed to secure the title of winner in the category of large cities in terms of education and demography thanks to the amount allocated from the city budget for education, social policy and the city's youth - as much as 58 percent of it.

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