Croatia (officially the Republic of Croatia) is a country at the crossroads between the Central Europe and the Southeast Europe. Croatia borders with Slovenia and Hungary to the north, Serbia to the northeast, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the east and Montenegro to the far southeast. It also shares a sea border with Italy. During Croatian history the most important cultural influences came from middle-European as well as from Mediterranean cultural circle.

According to the Census of Population from 2001, the population of Croatia numbered 4.437.460 inhabitants. Croatia is inhabited mostly by Croats (almost 90 per cent of the population), while the most important minorities were Serbs as the largest minority, comprising 4.5 per cent of the population. Other minority groups formed less than 0.5 per cent of the population.

The mainland covers 56.542 km2; surface area of territorial waters totals 31.067 km2.
The capital of Croatia is Zagreb (779,145 inhabitants), economic, cultural and political centre of the country.
According to the government system, Croatia is multi-party parliamentary democratic republic. From 22 May 1992, Croatia is a member of United Nations, as well as a candidate for membership of the European Union. Croatia received a NATO membership invitation on 3 April 2008. Croatia is expected to formally join the NATO pact on beginning of 2009.