Croatia

Population Size

· Life expectancy:

Male - 72.38 years

Female - 79.8 years

· Ethnic groups – Croat, Serb, Bosniak, Hungarian, Czech, Roma

· Literacy levels - 98.1%

· Languages - Croatian, Serbian, Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak, German, English

· Size of country (area) - 56, 594 sq. km.

· Population - 4,480, 043

· Density - 79 people/km2

· Access to transport - A lot of access; plain roads, airports, and surrounded by seas with many ports ("CIA world fact book" 2012)

Economic Elements

· GDP - $80.84 billion (purchasing power parity)

· GDP/capita - $18,300

· Unemployment rate - 17.9%

· Weekly average wage in dollar - $235

· Currency - Kuna

· Key industries - tourism, textiles, oil, natural gas

· Key local companies - Hrvatska elektroprivreda (HEP Group), The Agrokor Group, INA Group, HT Group

Fun Fact

· Croatia is home to the smallest town in the world according to the Guinness World Records. Hum, Istria has a population of 23 people ("adrijanaputovanja.hr," 2010)

This information can be favorable to foreign investors. Croatia and the US have several similarities like high literacy levels, long life expectancy rates compared to other countries, and most importantly the use of English. Although it has much smaller weekly wage rates and GDP per capita than the US, it is performing well compared to neighboring Bosnia and Herzegovina and has better access to sea than Hungary and most other surrounding countries ("Cia world factbook," 2012)

Quality of Life Index

· Zagreb, Croatia ranked 106th of the 221 cities in Mercer’s 2008 Quality of Living survey (only the top 50 are published for 2011’s survey and Zagreb was not on it)

Most cities in the top 50 are European countries and the fact that Zagreb lies somewhere in the middle of all the cities ranked is a good sign. It means Croatia is surrounded by highly livable areas and the country itself is not too bad of a place to live in. This is good for foreign investors because it means...