General Information
Area: 56,542 sq km (21,831 sq miles).
Population: 4,501,000 (1998).
Population Density: 79.6 per sq km.
Capital: Zagreb. Population: 706,770 (1991).
Geography: Croatia stretches along the Adriatic coast (narrowing north-south; the major ports being Rijeka, Pula, Zadar, Sibenik, Split and Dubrovnik) with a larger inland area (running west-east from Zagreb to the border with Serbia, Yugoslavia). The northern two-thirds of this border are formed by the River Danube. The country borders Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Yugoslavia to the east and Bosnia-Herzegovina (southeast from Zagreb; northeast from the Adriatic coastline).
Government: Republic. Independence from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia proclaimed in 1991. Head of State: President Stjepan Mesic since 2000. Head of Government: Prime Minister Ivica Racan since 2000.
Language: Croat, written in the Latin alphabet.
Religion: Roman Catholic Croats (76.5 per cent of the total population) and Eastern Orthodox Serbs (11 per cent), as well as small communities of Protestants, Jews and Muslims.
Time: GMT + 1 (GMT + 2 from last Saturday in March to Saturday before last Sunday in October).
Electricity: 220 volts AC, 50Hz.
Communications:
Telephone: IDD is available. Country code: 385. Outgoing international code: 00. Telephone booths are operated by phonecards.
Mobile telephone: GSM 900 network covers the whole country. Network operators include Croatian Telecom (website: www.tel.hr/cronet1).
Fax: Services are widely available.
Internet: The main ISP is Hrvatske Telekomunikacije (website: www.tel.hr). Cybercafés can be found in Zagreb and other main towns.
Press: There are no English-language newspapers at present. The main local newspapers are Vecernji List (Zagreb), Slobodna Dalmacija (Split) and Novi List (Rijeka).
BBC World Service and Voice of America frequencies: From time to time these change.
BBC (website: www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice):
Voice of America (website: www.voa.gov):
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