Over the past 30 years, since it declared independence from Yugoslavia, Croatia's population shrank by close to 19 percent, data released by the state statistics bureau on Friday showed.

In 1991 the country had a population of 4,784,265, and in 2021, according to data of the census conducted that year, it had a population of 3,888,529. The difference of 895,736 translates to a drop of 18.7 percent over these three decades.

In the decades before 1991, the number of residents had been steadily increasing – in 1981 Croatia had a population of 4,601,469, while in 1971 it was 4,426,221.

According to past data, the size of the country’s current population is now close to where it had been around 1950, as the 1948 census counted 3,779,858 people living inside today’s borders of Croatia.

This means that the negative population growth over the last 30 years has put the nation’s size to where it had been some 70 years ago.

In addition, the latest census 2021 data show that only three cities in the country have a population of 100,000 or more (Zagreb, Split, Rijeka) as Osijek – the largest city in the impoverished eastern region of Slavonia – has now dropped to little under 97,000 inhabitants.

In addition, only four other cities managed to record 50,000 people or more within their borders (Zadar, Velika Gorica, Pula, Slavonski Brod).