Even though Croatia has around 86 percent of citizens who declare themselves as Catholics, only just around half of the couples decide to get married in church.

When it comes to regions, people from Lika and Slavonija are more willing to ''seal the deal'' in church and that option is not so attractive to those from Istria and Primorje – reports Vecernji list.

The number of marriages made official in the church in recent years has gone downhill and, as never before, came closer to civil marriages. In the first nine months of 2017, 8.439 religious (52.6%) and 7.606 (47.4%) civil marriages were made, according to the Ministry of Administration.

Just for comparison - in 2009, the number of religious marriages was 63.5 percent, while civil was only 36.5 percent.