Where in the World is Croatia

Covering 21,829 square miles of southern Europe, Croatia shares its borders with Bosnia and Herzegovina, Hungary, Serbia, Montenegro and Slovenia, including some 3,626 miles of scenic Adriatic coastline. Home to 4.2 million people, the majority of Croats speak their native language, Croatian, although the nation’s mixed blending of European ethnicities inject multiple languages into the country’s conversational flow, including Italian, Hungarian, Czech, Slovak and German.

Urban-based Majority

With 57.8 percent of the Croat population living in major urban centers, the highest percentage of the population lives in Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb, which sports a population of 686,000 lives. Famed for its crystal clear Adriatic waters, Croatia curves around like a boomerang from the Pannonian Plains of Slovenia between the Sava, Drava, and Danube Rivers, across hilly central Croatia to the Istrian Peninsula, then south through Dalmatia along the rugged Adriatic coast. Blessed with a diverse geography, from its rocky coastline to plains, lakes, rolling hills and densely wooded mountains, Croatia maintains eight national parks for the preservation of its natural beauty, while its elongated border affords the nation broad control over most land routes from Western Europe to the Aegean Sea and the Turkish Straits, as well as the gateway to some 1,200 islands and islets that dot the Adriatic Sea, of which 66 are inhabited.

Continental Climate

The country’s highest peak can be found at Mount Dinara in southeastern Croatia, which stands at 5,951 feet above sea level. Croatia’s capital city of Zagreb, the climate is predominately continental, with hot, dry summers and cold winters, the later accompanied by rain, snow and frequent fogs. The coastline, however, remains typically Mediterranean, with dry, hot summers and moderate but windy winter months. Rich in natural resources, including oil, bauxite, iron, calcium, gypsum, silica and mica, the country also contends with air pollution from metallurgical plants, which has damaged its forests with acid rain, while coastal pollution from industrial and domestic waste remains a persistent problem for the nation’s environmentalists, making Croatia, a stunning destination along the Adriatic Sea.