Another indication of the social situation in Croatia is the dramatic increase in the number of employees and owners of small businesses. In 2007 there were 267,842 people employed by small businesses in Croatia, just ten years later and in 2017 that number has fallen to 198,699. Over the past ten years the number of employees has been constantly falling in Croatia.

This trend started in the early 2000’s and doesn’t look like slowing up. Compared to ten years ago just under 70,000 fewer people and employed in small businesses. These very businesses should be one of the cogs that creates new enterprises, export opportunities, financial benefits and more importantly offer new employment.

Over the past five years over 200,000 Croatians have left the country looking for employment in other European Union countries, with Ireland and Sweden high on the wish list.