Croatia Environment - 2024

GEOGRAPHICAL NAMES 

Environment - current issues

air pollution improving but still a concern in urban settings and in emissions arriving from neighboring countries; surface water pollution in the Danube River Basin

Environment - international agreements

party to: Air Pollution, Air Pollution-Heavy Metals, Air Pollution-Multi-effect Protocol, Air Pollution-Nitrogen Oxides, Air Pollution-Persistent Organic Pollutants, Air Pollution-Sulphur 94, Air Pollution-Volatile Organic Compounds, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Climate Change-Paris Agreement, Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping-London Convention, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 2006, Wetlands, Whaling

signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Climate

Mediterranean and continental; continental climate predominant with hot summers and cold winters; mild winters, dry summers along coast

Land use

agricultural land: 23.7% (2018 est.)

arable land: 16% (2018 est.)

permanent crops: 1.5% (2018 est.)

permanent pasture: 6.2% (2018 est.)

forest: 34.4% (2018 est.)

other: 41.9% (2018 est.)

Urbanization

urban population: 58.6% of total population (2023)

rate of urbanization: 0.05% annual rate of change (2020-25 est.)

Revenue from forest resources

0.26% of GDP (2018 est.)

Revenue from coal

0% of GDP (2018 est.)

Air pollutants

particulate matter emissions: 15.29 micrograms per cubic meter (2019 est.)

carbon dioxide emissions: 17.49 megatons (2016 est.)

methane emissions: 3.98 megatons (2020 est.)

Waste and recycling

municipal solid waste generated annually: 1.654 million tons (2015 est.)

municipal solid waste recycled annually: 269,933 tons (2015 est.)

percent of municipal solid waste recycled: 16.3% (2015 est.)

Major rivers (by length in km)

Dunav (Danube) (shared with Germany [s], Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Serbia, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Moldova, and Romania [m]) - 2,888 km
note – [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth

Major watersheds (area sq km)

Atlantic Ocean drainage: (Black Sea) Danube (795,656 sq km)

Total water withdrawal

municipal: 460 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

industrial: 700 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

agricultural: 80 million cubic meters (2020 est.)

Total renewable water resources

105.5 billion cubic meters (2020 est.)

Geoparks

total global geoparks and regional networks: 2

global geoparks and regional networks: Papuk; Vis Archipelago (2023)

NOTE: The information regarding Croatia on this page is re-published from the 2024 World Fact Book of the United States Central Intelligence Agency and other sources. No claims are made regarding the accuracy of Croatia 2024 information contained here. All suggestions for corrections of any errors about Croatia 2024 should be addressed to the CIA or the source cited on each page.