ZAGREB, 18 July, 2021 - According to the 2011 census, as many as 150 settlements and villages in Croatia have become uninhabited, and most of such unpopulated places are in the municipality of Delnice in the Rijeka hinterland and in Karlovac and Istria counties, the Večernji List daily reported on Sunday.

The daily newspaper carried excerpts from a monograph on now-vacant settlements prepared by researchers Vlatka Dugački, Lana Peternel, Filip Škiljan.

Dugački was quoted by the VL daily as saying that uninhabited settlements and towns "are a complex social phenomenon".

According to the 2011 census, the highest number of abandoned settlements was registered in the mountainous region of Gorski Kotar (a wider Delnice area). Karlovac County ranked second, and was followed by Istria and Požega-Slavonia counties.

For instance in Primorje-Gorski Kotar County, nearly 50 settlements have become "ghost towns", and of them 30 were around Delnice. In Karlovac County, a score of settlements have become unpopulated, and in Istria 15.

No abandoned settlements in north of Croatia

On the other hand, in the northern counties -- Međimurje, Varaždin and Koprivnica-Križevci -- there were no abandoned settlements according to the 2011 census.

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