In a troubling demographic trend, Croatia has recorded its lowest birth rate since the inception of statistical tracking, according to provisional data from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics. Despite a rise in marriages and a decrease in mortality rates, the nation continues to grapple with a persistent decline in natural population growth.
The year 2023 witnessed the birth of merely 32,047 children, marking a significant downturn from the 34,027 births recorded in 2022 and continuing a concerning trend of declining birth rates. To put this in perspective, the year 2000 saw 43,746 children born, highlighting a stark contrast over the decades.
Conversely, the death toll has seen a modest reprieve, with approximately 6,000 fewer fatalities in 2023 compared to the previous year. The mortality figure stood at 51,319, a noticeable reduction from the 56,979 deaths reported in 2022. It’s worth noting that the spike in mortality in 2021 was largely attributed to the coronavirus pandemic, which claimed 8,557 lives in Croatia that year.
The significant reduction in deaths in 2023 has marginally mitigated the negative natural population growth, with the disparity between births and deaths at -19,272, an improvement from the -23,096 recorded in the preceding year.
Final and detailed demographic data for 2022 revealed a 7.2% decrease in births compared to the year before, with one in four children born out of wedlock, underscoring the evolving social dynamics in Croatian society.
