September the 23rd, 2022 - The final Croatian 2021 Census results have finally been published by the Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS), which shows that there are less inhabitants, less men, and less people who identify as Catholic.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, the Central Bureau of Statistics has now published the final results of the Croatian 2021 Census on the total population by gender and age, as well as by ethnicity, religion, citizenship and mother tongue.

According to the Croatian 2021 Census, the Republic of Croatia currently has 3,871,833 inhabitants, of which 1,865,129 are men (48.17%) and 2,006,704 are women (51.83%). Compared to the 2011 Census, the number of inhabitants decreased by 413,056 persons or 9.64%.

The total number of inhabitants decreased across all of the country's counties, and the largest relative decrease in the number of inhabitants was rather unsurprisingly present in Central and Eastern Croatia, more precisely in Vukovar-Srijem County (20.28%), Sisak-Moslavina County (19.04%), Pozega-Slavonia County (17.88%). Brod-Posavina County (17.85%) and Virovitica-Podravina County (17.05%).

The share of the population aged 0 to 14 stands at just 14.27%, and the share of the population aged 65 and over is a considerably higher 22.45%.

Croatia's national population structure as of 2021

The results of the Croatian 2021 Census show that the share of Croats in the national structure of the population stands at 91.63%, the share of ethnic Serbs stands at 3.20%, Bosniaks 0.62%, Roma 0.46%, Italians 0.36% and Albanians 0.36%, while the share of other members of national minorities is individually less than 0.30%. The share of people who have declared regionally amounts to 0.33%, and the number of people who did not want to declare this at all amounts to 0.58%.

Religious affiliation

According to religious affiliation, 78.97% of people refer to themselved as Catholics, 3.32% refer to themselves as Orthodox, there are 1.32% Muslims, and non-believers and atheists amount to 4.71%, while 1.72% of people didn't want to state their religion or religious beliefs whatsoever.

According to data by religion from back in 2011, it can be seen that the number of Catholics fell by a not insignificant 7.3 percent. The number of atheists, agnostics and skeptics has also increased somewhat.

Data by religion from 2011

Catholics – 3,697,143 – 86.28%
Orthodox - 190 143 - 4.44 %
Non-believers and atheists – 163,375 – 3.81%
Those who didn't declare their religious beliefs - 93,018 - 2.17%

Mother tongue

When it comes to what Croatia's inhabitants in 2021 have as their mother tongue, 95.25% of people declared that their mother tongue was Croatian, and 1.16% of people declared that their mother tongue was Serbian. The share of people with another mother tongue is individually less than 1.00%.

There are 28,784 foreigners living in Croatia

Of the total number of inhabitants of the Republic of Croatia, 99.24% have Croatian citizenship, while foreign citizens make up 0.74% or 28,784 of the population, according to HRT.

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January the 18th, 2022 - Following the release of the official results of last year's Croatian census, which revealed not only another worrying drop in numbers in terms of the population but other uncomfortable facts such as the sheer amount of those remaining people who drawing their pensions, it has turned out that there are very many ''phantom'' Croatian Health Insurance policy holders, too.

The hunt is now on to find 209,000 Croatian Health Insurance policy holders who aren't even registered as living in the country at all. HZZO (Croatian Health Insurance Fund) has its work cut out when it comes to cancelling the policies of all those who are still likely coming home for treatment but live elsewhere.

As Poslovni Dnevnik writes, despite the fact that the 2021 census has revealed that all of the country's counties as well as the City of Zagreb have fewer inhabitants than they had 10 years ago, Croatia still has 209,000 more Croatian Health Insurance policy holders than registered residents and more voters than adult citizens, writes Vecernji list.

According to the first results of last year's census, the Republic of Croatia has a maximum of 3,888,529 inhabitants, while on January the 3rd, 2022, it somehow had as many as 4,097,903 Croatian Health Insurance policy holders.

After the census, the voter register, which includes 3,690,623 adult citizens, will have to be "cleaned up".

Demographers have previously warned about issues caused by fictitious or ''phantom'' Croatian Health Insurance policy holders, explaining that they are most likely Croatian citizens or residents, Serbs who have left Croatia, Croats from neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatian citizens who emigrated but didn't ''check out'' of the system, and foreigners who own real estate in the country but don't live here.

It isn't possible to estimate just how many of these insured persons who aren't residents of Croatia use the so-called "free" healthcare, and how many are no longer here, don't use the system, and are only formally still registered with HZZO.

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