Croatia (Croatian: Hrvatska ), officially the Republic of Croatia (Croatian: Republika Hrvatska) is a country in Central and Southern Europe, on the Adriatic Sea. Its capital city is Zagreb, which forms one of the country's primary subdivisions, along with its twenty counties. Croatia has an area of 56,594 square kilometres (21,851 square miles) and a population of 4.28 million, most of whom are Roman Catholics (86.3%); the Orthodox make up 4.44%, Muslims - 1.5%, Protestants - 0.35%. Ethnic Croats make up more than 90% of the total population of the country, Serbs - 4.36%, Italians and Albanians - 0.41% each.
Croatia is a republic governed under a parliamentary system. The International Monetary Fund classified Croatia as an emerging and developing economy, and the World Bank identified it as a high-income economy. Croatia is a member of the European Union (EU), United Nations (UN), the Council of Europe, NATO, the World Trade Organization (WTO) and a founding member of the Union for the Mediterranean. As an active participant in the UN peacekeeping forces, Croatia has contributed troops to the NATO-led mission in Afghanistan and took a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for the 2008–2009 term.
The service sector dominates Croatia's economy, followed by the industrial sector and agriculture. International Tourism is a significant source of revenue during the summer, with Croatia ranked the 18th most popular tourist destination in the world. The state controls a part of the economy, with substantial government expenditure. The European Union is Croatia's most important trading partner. Since 2000, the Croatian government has constantly invested in infrastructure, especially transport routes and facilities along the Pan-European corridors. Internal sources produce a significant portion of energy in Croatia; the rest is imported. Croatia provides a universal health care system and free primary and secondary education, while supporting culture through numerous public institutions and corporate investments in media and publishing.
Inequality between the rights and freedoms enjoyed by the titular nation (Croats) and national minorities remains today, albeit at a smaller scale. First of all, this is expressed in the right of representatives of non-titular nationalities who previously lived on the territory of Croatia to obtain citizenship. Given the still high level of mistrust between the indigenous inhabitants of Croatia and certain minorities, this problem may become one of the threats to the national security of the country.
In general, Croatian politics are aimed at establishing a single political nation. The “Anticyrillic referendum” project which was singed by 15-20% of adult population, showed that Croatia has an aggressive part of the population who is ready to impose their way of life on others.
