The ‘’white plague’’ as a demographic catastrophe is usually called, is continuing to devastate Croatian villages and cities.

According to the latest data from the Central Bureau of Statistics (DZS), last year the lowest number of babies was born in the last century i.e. 36,647 babies.

Just for comparison, in 2016, there were 37,547 born babies or 900 more than in 2017. This is the first time since 1991 and Croatia’s independence that the number of births in only one year fell below 37,000.

During the 1990s, more than 60,000 babies were born in Croatia annually. It seems that parents generally think that now it is more difficult to survive with a child in Croatia than it was during the Homeland War.

This devastating data in combination with the rapid emigration of desperate citizens to other parts of Europe in search of a better life and working conditions, is leading unstoppably to only one thing - a complete demographic catastrophe.