2.5 Million Croats Leave Croatia In Last 130 Years

Around 2.5 million Croats have left its shores in the last 130 years, whilst 1.2 million have emigrated to Croatia – a 1.3 million shortfall, revealed demograph Drazen Zivic during his lecture “Croatia emigration in the light of demographic statistics”, at the “Days of Croatian Heritage Foundation” in the Vukovar-Syrmia County in eastern Croatia.

“Some will say that Croatia is the Ireland of south-east Europe,” said Zivic, adding that Croatia throughour its history was characterised by large scale migration.

Zivic says that although there is no exact data, in the last 20 years since the war there has been an estimated 200,000 Croats leave its shores, and that is not counting the refugees during the war.

Zivic also touched on the fact that Croatia’s entry into the EU may again bring another wave of migration as Croats move to other EU countries for work.