Croatia
Croatia is a Central European and Mediterranean
country, bordering Slovenia in the west, Hungary in the north, Serbia in
the east and Bosnia and Herzegovina in the south. Croatia 
also has a long
maritime bord
er with Italy in the Adriatic Sea. These borders total 2,028
km altogether. Croatia has a strange shape (similar to a croissant) -
similar to no other country in the world - which comes as a result of five
centuries of expansion by the Ottoman (Turkish) empire towards Central
Europe (although Croatia was never conquered by the Turks). Croatia
covers a land area of 56,691 square kilometers and has a population of
about 4.4 million people (2001 census). Over 90% of the population is
Croat (the majority of whom are Roman Catholics), but there are also
Serbian, Bosnian, Hungarian and Italian minorities. The main population centers
are Zagreb, the capital (with a population of just under 800,000), Osijek
in the northwest, and the ports of Rijeka, and Split in the south. The
official language is Croatian, which is written in the Latin script.
Croatia has an amazing 5,835km of coastline, 4,057km of which belongs to
islands, cliffs and reefs. There are 1,185 islands in the Adriatic, but
only about 50 are populated. The largest island is Krk (near Rijeka) which
has a land area of 462 square km. The climate is Mediterranean along the
Adriatic coast, meaning warm dry summers and mild winters, with 2,600
hours of sunlight on average yearly - it is one of the sunniest coastlines
in Europe! In the interior of the country, the climate is continental with
hot summers and cold, snowy winters. More facts and figures on the country
can be found at the CIA
World Factbook on Croatia.
