According to the former National Youth Programme for the Period 2014-2017 (Nacionalni program za mlade 2014 – 2017), 'youth' in the Republic of Croatia refers to persons aged between 15 and 30 years old.

According to the data provided by the Census of 2021, youth represent 15.9% of the total population of Croatia (comprising 618,054 people). Table 1 provides an overview of youth in the Republic of Croatia by age and gender.

Table 1.

Source: Croatian Bureau of Statistics

However, the proportion of young people in the general population has been decreasing. In 1953, this proportion was 27.7%, in 2001, 20.3%, and the demographic picture provided by the census in the Republic of Croatia in 2011 found that there were only 652,428 children (aged between 0 and 14 years old) and 553,574 children by the census from 2021. This indicate that the number of young people in the general population is set to decrease further. Young people between 15 and 29 years are also decreasing – in 2011 they represented 18.6%, while in 2021 only 15.9%.