Best cities and towns in Croatia to live and work

Rovinj

ZAGREB, 26 October 2021 – The winners of the best cities and towns in Croatia to live and work have been announced once again. The awards, organised for the fourth year in a row by gradonačelnik.hr, leading newspaper Jutarnji list and the Ipsos Agency, were held in Novi Vinodolski on Thursday. 

Based on a series of numerical parameters and analysis of publicly available official data, small, medium and large-sized towns and cities were declared the winners in various categories.    

The best cities and towns in Croatia in the ‘economy’ category were Mali Lošinj (small), Sveta Nedelja (medium) and Samobor (large), for demography and education Cres (small), Labin (medium) and Velika Gorica (large), and the best cities and towns for quality of life were Krk (small), Rovinj (medium) and Varaždin (large). 

Samobor in Zagreb County

Virovitica is again the ‘champion of EU funds’ this year, and the city that has made the greatest progress in the field of quality of life is Križevci.

As many as six cities and towns – Krk, Rovinj, Cres, Labin, Sveta Nedjelja and Virovitica, managed to defend their titles this year whilst Sveta Nedjelja defended its title for the fourth consecutive year as the best medium-sized town in the land.

Krk

Mali Lošinj (small), Sveta Nedelja (medium) and Samobor (large) were declared the best cities and towns in the country in the ‘economy’ category this year.

Along with Cres (small) and Labin (medium), which were named the best cities and towns in the field of demography and education for the third time, this year Velika Gorica (large) also celebrated for the first time in the category.

Mali Lošinj

In the quality of life category, Krk triumphed as the best small city for quality of life for the third time in a row, Rovinj celebrated for the second year in a row in the medium-sized city or town category, and the title of the best in the category of large cities this year went to Varaždin. 

In the category ‘Champion of EU funds’, Virovitica triumphed as the best and most successful in the field of using EU funds.

Varaždin (Photo: Thaler Tamas/CC-4.0)

In a brand new category, which measured and compared the progress that cities have made in the past four years in the field of allocation and investment in quality of life, the title of the best was won by Križevci.

Finalist for best cities and towns:

Economy – small-sized town/city 
Krk, Hvar, Komiža, Varaždinske Toplice 

Economy – medium-sized town/city
Rovinj, Poreč, Umag, Dugo Selo

Economy – large-sized town/city
Varaždin, Pula, Krapina, Koprivnica 

Demography and education – small-sized town/city
Krk, Buje, Novigrad, Komiža 

Demography and education – medium-sized town/city
Crikvenica, Poreč, Rovinj, Umag 

Demography and education – large-sized town/city
Čakovec, Pazin, Šibenik, Bjelovar 

Quality of life – small-sized town/city
Novigrad, Mali Lošinj, Supetar, Rab 

Quality of life – medium-sized town/city
Zaprešić, Poreč, Sveta Nedelja, Labin 

Quality of life – large-sized town/city
Zagreb, Čakovec, Samobor, Velika Gorica 

Biggest improvement
Metković, Sinj, Klanjec, Sisak

Best use of EU funds 
Beli Manastir, Petrinja, Rijeka, Zagreb