ZAGREB, Aug 10, 2020 - The number of births in 2019 was higher than the number of deaths in only ten out of 128 towns in Croatia, says the Monday issue of Jutarnji List daily.

Figures provided by the national statistical office show that the number of births was higher than the number of deaths in Opuzen, Imotski, Kastela, Novigrad/Cittanova, Zapresic, Cakovec, Korcula, Solin, Pazin and Metkovic. Among those communities, only one is a bigger town, Cakovec.

As for county capitals, the most negative demographic trends were recorded in Vukovar, where last year only 194 children were born while the number of deaths was 405.

Zadar fares the best, having almost the same number of births and deaths, 686 and 705 respectively.

There were no new births in four communities - Ervenik and Kijevo in Sibenik-Knin County, Sucuraj in Split-Dalmatia County, and Ribnik in Karlovac County.

Collective data shows that 36,135 children were born in Croatia in 2019 - the lowest number since 1900, when demographic record-keeping started, while 51,784 people died.

Not counting emigration, Croatia's population in 2019 shrank by the size of a town like Porec.

The vitality index, which shows the number of births per 100 deaths, is 69.8 in Croatia. Not one county had a vitality index exceeding 100.

The number of births has been decreasing steadily since the mid-1990s while the number of deaths has been more or less stagnating.

Preliminary data for 2020 warn that the negative trends will continue - in the first six month of this year there were 150 fewer births than in the same period last year, the daily says.