Recently presented maps on poverty, spatial distribution of poverty and social exclusion in Croatia, show that continental Croatia has a higher rate of poverty than the coastline region of the country.

Detailed maps were created by the Ministry of Regional Developments and EU Funds in cooperation with the Ministry of Social Policy and Youth, the Croatian Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank in order to help policymakers in better understanding the spatial distribution of poverty, especially at the level of municipalities and cities thus trying to reduce regional differences and eradicate poverty and social exclusion in Croatia.

According to results of the poverty survey for small geographic areas there is heterogeneity of poverty in Croatia with the poverty rate of 19.4 percent in the continental region and 12.6 percent in the Adriatic region.

By the income criteria, the estimated risk of poverty in Croatia in 2011 was 19.2 percent, which means that around 800,000 people had an annual income lower than 24,000 Kunas, which was the risk of poverty threshold for a single-member household. The lowest estimates of poverty rate risk were recorded in Zagreb (9.8%), in the Primorje-Gorje County (11.9%) and in the Istria County (11.9%), whilst the highest were recorded in the Brod-Posavina County (35.9%), the Virovitica-Podravina County (33.4%) and in the Vukovar-Srijem County (31.9%).

By the expenditure criteria, the estimated risk of poverty in Croatia in 2011 was 17.1 percent, which means that around 700,000 people had annual expenditures of less than 23,919 Kunas, which was the risk of poverty threshold for a single-member household. The lowest estimates of poverty rate risk were recorded in Zagreb (5.9%), in the Primorje-Gorje County (9.1%), whilst the highest were recorded in the Pozega-Slavonia County (32.5%), in the Brod-Posavina County (33.9%) and in the Karlovac County (34.3%).