Croatia is becoming a country with more and more immigrants with over 30 percent of its incomers in 2019 coming from Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Vecernji List daily reported on Tuesday.

The data provided by the national statistical office (DZS) shows that in 2019, a total of 40,149 people emigrated from Croatia, and 32,453 of them were Croatian nationals (80.8%) while a fifth, that is 7,667 were foreigners.

Nearly 28,000 foreigners immigrate to Croatia in 2019

However, last year, Croatia registered a record high number of immigrants, 37,726. Of them 27,834 were foreigners, and 9,882 were Croatians.

For the sake of comparison from 2013 to 2016, about 10,000 people immigrated to Croatia per year.

2018 saw a marked rise in the number of immigrants, 26,000, and two-thirds of them were foreigners.

Nearly one in three immigrants come from Bosnia and Herzegovina

Broken down by the country of origin in 2019, 31.9% of immigrants were from Bosnia and Herzegovina. Thus, last year, 12,040 people emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina to Croatia, and 2,420 of them were Croats and 9,620 Bosniaks and Serbs.

Also, as many as 4,079 people moved from Serbia to Croatia last year, plus 720 immigrants from that country who are Croatian nationals.

Citizens of Kosovo followed with 3,525.

There were 2,987 foreigners moving from Asia to Croatia.

Furthermore, the DZS data showed that 1,459 Macedonians and 1,055 Ukrainians immigrated here, the Vecernji List daily reported.

Germany top destination for Croatian emigrants

When it comes to emigration from Croatia to other countries, in 2019, Germany was the top destination with 19,094, that is almost a half of all those who left Croatia last year.

Austria followed, with nearly 3,000 Croatian immigrants. Ireland received 1,340 Croatian immigrants in 2019.

Last year, 1,672 people left Croatia for Serbia ad 1,229 moved into Bosnia and Herzegovina.