Every other aircraft in Croatia back in 2017 was twenty years old or even older. The latest EU statistics which show the age of Croatia's planes are of concern.

As Adriano Milovan/Novac writes on the 8th of December, 2019, according to these EU statistics, out of the total of 30 aircraft that made up the Croatian aviation fleet for commercial passenger traffic in 2017, 15, or half, were 20 or more years old. The Croatian aviation fleet also had no aircraft under five years old, EU statistics show.

Croatia is among the EU member states with the oldest aviation fleet. Other member states with a larger share of planes older than 20 in operation in 2017 were Sweden, with 55 percent, and Lithuania with 52 percent. Among the EU member states, only Croatia and Cyprus had no aircraft under five years of age.

The obsolescence of the Croatian aviation fleet is also indicated by the EU statistics according to which eight aircraft, or more than a quarter of the total number, were 15 to 19 years old. In 2017, Croatia only had one plane between 10 and 14 years old, while six of them, according to Eurostat, were as young or five to nine years old.

In the EU as a whole in 2017, there were a total of 6,711 aircraft engaged in commercial passenger transport. About one fifth of them, or 21 percent, were under five years of age, and more than a quarter or 27 percent were between five and nine years old, while nearly one fifth or 19 percent were between 10 and 14 years old. Just over a third of EU aircraft, or 34 percent, in 2017 were over 15 years of age, of which about half were aged 20 or over.

The most modern aviation fleet in the EU, according to Eurostat data, is owned by Finland, which did not have aircraft aged 20 or more in operation in 2017. The aircraft fleets of Luxembourg, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Austria and the Netherlands also have a very small share of old aircraft.

The largest number of commercial passenger planes in the EU in 2017 was in the United Kingdom, with 1,312, followed by Germany, with 1,100 planes, and France, with 571 planes, while Cyprus has the smallest number of commercial passenger aircraft.

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“It’s a nice place to visit, but I wouldn’t want to live there,” so the saying goes, and that appears to apply to life for some in present-day Croatia. Recent research shows that Croats are extremely unhappy people.

As Gordan Duhaček/Index reveals on November 29, 2019; EUROSTAT has published data on life satisfaction in the European Union, and Croatia is again at the bottom of the chart. On the other hand, the citizens of Finland are most satisfied with their lives.

“Generally speaking; how satisfied are you with your life right now?" That is the question Eurostat asked thousands of Europeans in 2018, offering them the opportunity to answer on a scale from 0 ("not at all satisfied") to 10 ("completely satisfied"). The EU average in terms of satisfaction with one's life for 2018 is 7.3, which is a 0.3-point increase over 2013, when the survey began.

EU Life Satisfaction Increase

In five years, satisfaction with one's own financial situation has increased (in 2013 the average was 6, and in 2018 it was 6.5), as well as satisfaction with personal relationships (in 2013 the average was 7.8 and now 7.9).

But a more complex picture emerges by reviewing results across European Union countries. Finns rated their life satisfaction an impressive 8.1, while Bulgarians, who are least satisfied with their lives, gave their life satisfaction a 5.4 rating. Croats are second from the bottom of the rankings, with a reported life satisfaction rating of 6.3, which is below the EU average.

Lithuania, Greece, Hungary, Portugal, Latvia, Estonia, Cyprus, Italy, Slovenia, Romania, France and Spain all reported below-average ratings, while the Finns, Austrians, Danes, Poles, Swedes and Dutch are most satisfied with their lives.

From 2013 to 2018, life satisfaction increased among citizens of all 19 EU Member States, with Cyprus, Bulgaria and the Czech Republic enjoying the largest leap. And although Bulgarians are the least satisfied with their lives of all EU member states, they have grown more satisfied in the past five years. However, the same cannot be said for Croats.

Croatia Not Satisfied

Specifically, Croats were equally (un) satisfied with their lives in 2013 and 2018, and only Belgians expressed the same level of satisfaction, but their satisfaction level is significantly above that of Croatia. Interestingly, in 2018, only four EU Member States performed worse, namely Lithuania (-0.3), Denmark (-0.2), the Netherlands (-0.1) and Sweden (-0.1). However, it shouldn’t be assumed that Lithuanians and the Dutch are equally dissatisfied, given that Lithuania is at the bottom of the ladder and the Netherlands is at the top. In other words, the decline in life satisfaction in the Netherlands by 0.2 percent is almost negligible, while the overall poor positioning of Lithuania is a much bigger challenge for its citizens.

Croats are also among the least satisfied with their financial situation (only Bulgarians and Lithuanians submitted worse ratings) and are well below the EU average, which garnered a 6.5 rating on a scale from 1 to 10 in 2018. Croats, however, rated their financial satisfaction at 5.1.

Citizens of Denmark, Finland and Sweden are most satisfied with their financial situation, with the largest increases in financial satisfaction from 2013 to 2018 were reported in Greece, Cyprus, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Italy and Slovenia.

Croatian Relationships Lacking

The results in the category of personal relationships are particularly interesting. Malta is most satisfied (8.6 rating), followed by Austria, Slovenia, Cyprus and Sweden. This suggests that satisfaction with financial situation is not crucial to fostering good interpersonal relationships.

The Croats are at the bottom again, unfortunately. Only Bulgarians (6.6) and Greeks (7.1) are more dissatisfied with their personal relationships, while Croats with a score of 7.5, are now third in the EU. It is worth noting that this rating is only slightly higher than 2013, which suggests that Croats should be working on their interpersonal relationships.

In any case, Eurostat has demonstrated what some of us experience every day: Croats are a deeply dissatisfied nation, both in their lives and in their relationships with other people.

A detailed article is available on the Eurostat website here. For more information on life in Croatia, follow our Lifestyle page here.

As SibenikIN writes on the 13th of April, 2019, Croats have taken yet another EU record, and it isn't the most encouraging one economy-wise. This time, Croatia has taken the crown when it comes to the age until which young people continue to live with their parents, Eurostat's data shows.

The only country in which young people leave the parental nest later than Croatia is Malta. While Maltese youth tend to leave the parental home at 32.2 years of age on average, the average is 31.9 years old in Croatia, according to Eurostat's data on the matter.

In comparison, in Sweden, the average age at which people leave the parental home is 21 years old, in Denmark it is 21.1 years old, Luxembourg id 21.4 years old, and in Finland, people tend to leave at around 21.9 years old. At the other end of the scale, after Malta and Croatia, come Slovakia (30.8 years old), Italy (30.1 years old), Greece (29.4 old), and Spain (29.3 years old), reports Index.

While this is immediately rather discouraging generally, in Croatia, however, the situation has slightly improved compared to how the situation was back in 2015, when the country took first place, and Malta came second. Back then, the average age that Croats left the parental home was 31.4 years old, and for the Maltese, 31.1 years old. A map of the European Union, published by Eurostat, also clearly shows that at least in this respect, Croatia is at the forefront of the EU - just where it shouldn't be.

According to Eurostat data for 2016, more than half (58.7 percent) of young Croats aged between 25 and 34 were still living with their parents, putting Croatia in first place for this statistic. The average at the EU level is only 28.5 percent, twice as low as it is in Croatia, reports Index.

The Nordic countries which are part of the EU have done the best by far in this respect: Denmark (3.8 percent), Finland (4.3 percent) and Sweden (6 percent). After Croatia come Slovakia (55.5 percent), Greece (55 percent), Malta (51.5 percent) and Italy (48.9 percent), at the extreme opposite end of the scale.

Eurostat also found that in each EU member state, females tend to move out of their parental homes earlier than males do. The biggest gender difference was recorded in Romania, where the age for women is 25.6, and 30.3 years for men. The second is Bulgaria with 26.5 for women and 31.1 for men, while Croatia is once again very close to the top, in third place: the average age for leaving Croatia is 30.4 years of age for Croatian women, and 33.4 years of age for Croatian men.

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