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Croatia has a parliamentary democracy. Parliament is vested with the legislative power in the Republic of Croatia.

Croatia, being an upper middle-income country and a full-fledged market economy, hopes to join the European Union (EU) around 2011. Its main development objective is to reach 75%of the EU’s average per capita income by 2013.

A recent survey by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) showed that every sixth person in Croatia was older than 65.

Administratively, Croatia is divided to 20 counties plus the City of Zagreb.

Health

As for the disease burden, Croatia is in the group of countries with low mortality in both adults and children. Disease burden is mainly attributable to noncommunicable diseases. Smoking, obesity and insufficient physical activity are the major contributing risk factors.

Cardiovascular mortality currently accounts for over half of all deaths in the country, and has risen constantly since the 1970s. In total population, the leading causes of death in 2008 were circulatory diseases, due to which 26 235 people died (591.2/100 000). They were followed by neoplasms, responsible for 13 280 deaths (299.3/100 000). These two disease groups accounted for three quarters of overall causes of mortality.