The counties of Croatia () are the first-level administrative subdivisions of the Republic of Croatia. Since they were re-established in 1992, Croatia has been divided into 20 counties and the capital city of Zagreb, which has the authority and legal status of both a county and a city (separate from the surrounding Zagreb County). As of 2015, the counties are subdivided into 128 cities and 428 (mostly rural) municipalities. The divisions have changed over time since the medieval Croatian state. They reflected territorial losses and expansions; changes in the political status of Dalmatia, Dubrovnik and Istria; and political circumstances, including the personal union and subsequent development of relations between the Kingdom of Croatia-Slavonia and the Kingdom of Hungary.
Government County assembly () is a representative and deliberative body in each county. Assembly members are elected for a four-year term by popular vote (proportional system with closed lists and d'Hondt method) in local elections.
The executive branch of each county's government is headed by a county prefect (), except that a mayor heads the city of Zagreb's executive branch. Croatia's county prefects (with two deputy prefects), mayor of Zagreb (with two deputy mayors) are elected for a four-year term by a majority of votes cast within applicable local government units, with a runoff election if no candidate achieves a majority in the first round of voting (majoritarian vote, two-round system). County prefects (with deputy prefects and mayor of Zagreb with his/her deputies) can be recalled by a referendum. County administrative bodies are administrative departments and services which are established for the performance of works in the self-governing domain of the county, as well as for the performance of works of state administration transferred to the county. Administrative departments and services are managed by heads (principals) nominated by the county prefect based on a public competition.
Funding and tasks The counties are funded by the central government, as well as by revenue generated by county-owned businesses, county taxes and county fees. The county taxes include a five per cent inheritance and gift tax, a motor vehicle tax, a vessel tax and an arcade game machine tax. The counties are tasked with performing general public administration services, primary and secondary education, government funded healthcare, social welfare, administration pertaining to agriculture, forestry, hunting, fisheries, mining, industry and construction, and other services to the economy at the county level, as well as road transport infrastructure management and issuing of building and location permits and other documents concerning construction in the county area excluding the area of the big city and the county seat city; the central government and local (city and municipal) governments may also perform each of those tasks at their respective levels according to the law. The Croatian County Association () was established in 2003 as a framework for inter-county cooperation.
County spending accounts for 15 per cent of the total local-government spending in Croatia. The balance is spent by cities and municipalities. Approximately one half of the total spent by the counties is channeled into their primary fields of competence – secondary and vocational education, and financing of maintenance and running costs of healthcare and social welfare institutions. There are instances where individual counties also provide services otherwise delegated to lower-level self-government, such as primary education and spatial planning in cases where those units could not set up those services. The counties are criticized for inefficient spending. The criticism primarily stems from the fact that the counties receive the bulk of the funds needed for specific purposes from the central government budget and transfers them on. This contributes to the sense of absence of responsibility of the counties for the funds. In turn, that leads to very little or no incentive for improvements to spending efficiency or better collection of the county-level taxes. After year 2000, all those considerations have contributed to an ongoing debate in Croatia on the need of consolidation or abolition of the counties in political forums. Opinions on the matter differ considerably. They range from improving efficiency while retaining the existing counties, to consolidation to obtain nine counties, and abolition of the counties in favour of establishment of an administrative division of Croatia in five regions and potentially sub-regions.
Lists of counties Current
+Counties of Croatia established in 1992 County Seat Area (2006) Population (2021) GDP per capita (2019) Arms Geographic coordinatesBjelovar-Bilogora Bjelovar Central CroatiaPannonian Croatia101,879 07986€9,132 Brod-Posavina Slavonski Brod SlavoniaPannonian Croatia130,267 06607€8,211 Dubrovnik-Neretva Dubrovnik DalmatiaAdriatic Croatia115,564 13277€14,673 Istria Pazin IstriaAdriatic Croatia195,237 15570€15,960 Karlovac Karlovac Central CroatiaPannonian Croatia112,195 08301€9,510 Koprivnica-Križevci Koprivnica Central CroatiaNorthern Croatia101,221 08711€10,110 Krapina-Zagorje Krapina Central CroatiaNorthern Croatia120,702 07919€8,954 Lika-Senj Gospić Central CroatiaAdriatic Croatia42,748 08878€10,725 Međimurje CČakovecČakovec Central CroatiaNorthern Croatia0,730105,250 10302€11,476 Osijek-Baranja Osijek SlavoniaPannonian Croatia258,026 08684€10,232 Požega-Slavonia Požega SlavoniaPannonian Croatia64,084 06620€8,217 Primorje-Gorski Kotar Rijeka Central CroatiaAdriatic Croatia265,419 14797€15,232 Sisak-Moslavina SisakCentral CroatiaPannonian Croatia139,603 07868€9,706 Split-Dalmatia SplitDalmatiaAdriatic Croatia423,407 09636€10,759 SŠibenikŠibenik-Knin SŠibenikŠibenikDalmatiaAdriatic Croatia96,381 09713€11,325 Varaždin Varaždin Central CroatiaNorthern Croatia159,487 10899€12,112 Virovitica-Podravina Virovitica SlavoniaPannonian Croatia70,368 06525€7,869 Vukovar-Srijem Vukovar SlavoniaPannonian Croatia143,113 06730€8,606 Zadar Zadar Central Croatia (Through Gračac) and DalmatiaAdriatic Croatia159,766 10803€11,544 Zagreb Zagreb Central CroatiaNorthern Croatia299,985 09710€10,769 Zagreb, the city ofCity of ZagrebCentral CroatiaZagreb, the city ofCity of Zagreb0,641767,131 22695€23,742
History Middle Ages
Medieval Croatia under the House of Trpimirović was territorially organised for purposes of administration into areas named župa. Each župa was governed either by the king directly or his representative for the territory. The title given to such representatives was župan. Gradually, the term župa was replaced in practice with županija – meaning "the territory governed by a župan. Since the 12th century, the counties have also been referred to by the Latin term comitatus. Since the 20th century, English-language sources use the term county to refer to županija.
The number of counties, their extent and authority have varied significantly, reflecting: changes in the relative levels of power wielded by kings and nobility; territorial changes in the course of the Croatian–Ottoman Wars; and societal and political changes through several centuries. Sources disagree on the number of counties in the medieval Croatian state. The situation is further complicated by existence of nobility-owned lands enjoying special statuses. Historians Ivan Beuc and Josip Vrbošić note that the following eleven counties are normally listed as the oldest known:
Livno (encompassing the Livanjsko polje) Cetina (centered on the Cetina river, with its seat in Stolac) Imotski (south of Livno County and north of the Biokovo Mountain, seat in Imotski) Pliva (around the Pliva and Vrbas rivers) Pset or Pesenta (between the Una and Unac in the West, and Sana in the East) Primorje or Klis (along the Adriatic's coast between Šibenik and Omiš, with its seat in the Klis Fortress) (to the west of Primorje County, with the seat in the Bribir Fortress) Nin (around Nin as the seat of the county, and Zadar) Knin (with its seat in the Knin Fortress) Sidraga (in the area between Bribir County and Zadar, likely with seat in Biograd) Nona, later renamed Luka (between Knin, Nin, Sidraga and Bribir counties)
In addition to the above, other sources like historian Neven Budak list further three 10th-century counties located to the northwest of the territory encompassed by the eleven counties centered around Gacka, Krbava and Lika – and named after those toponyms. There are indications that there were further contemporary counties in Lower Pannonia north of Gvozd Mountain (referred to as the Pannonian Croatia in some sources) in the same period. However, their existence is poorly documented. The prevailing opinion in Croatian historiography is that the Pannonian counties were directly subject to the ruler of the Croatian state, while the counties in the south were largely hereditary, controlled by nobility. In the area between the Kvarner Gulf of the Adriatic Sea, the Mala Kapela mountain, and the rivers of Kupa and Korana, there was the Modruš County in existence in the late 11th century.
The earliest recorded counties in the area between Sava and Drava rivers date back to the 12th century. Those counties are identified as the Zagreb, Varaždin, Virovitica, and counties – with the Križevci County reported as the largest of them all. At the same time, Vrbas, Sana and Dubica counties were established to the south of the Sava River (in areas around Vrbas, Sana and the near present-day Dubica respectively) as territories administered by royal appointees on behalf of the king. Another county established south of Sava in the same period was the Glaž County. Just as the Vrbas, Sana, and Dubica counties, sources locate the Glaž County to the northwestern Bosnia, but disagree on its location, placing it around the Ukrina river or, like historian Pál Engel, equating its seat with the city of Banja Luka. Engel further noted that Tvrtko I of Bosnia may have surrendered the seat of the county to Hungarian rule by a treaty of 1357. Under the treaty, a part of Hum lands was ceded as dowry of Elizabeth of Bosnia. In the 13th century, the Požega and Vuka counties were established in the area of the modern-day Slavonia to the east of Virovitica and Križevci counties. The Požega, Vuka, Virovitica and Križevci counties were also referred to as the south-Hungarian counties.
In the 13th and 14th century, the Croatian nobility grew stronger and the counties defined by the king were reduced to a formal framework, while military and financial power was wielded by the nobility and especially the king. Other forms of administration that overlapped with county administration in this period included the Roman Catholic Church and the free royal cities, and separately the cities of Dalmatia. In such circumstances, the nobility had little incentive to perform county duties and often appointed deputies to preside over county court proceedings hearing matters of little importance once every two weeks – as all major issues were normally delegated by royal exemptions to be ruled upon on a case-by-case basis. This further diminished significance of the counties. Modruš County ceased to exist as an administrative unit as it was broken up into multiple feudal estates. Vuka, Požega and Virovitica counties were lost to the Ottoman conquest. The Vuka County became defunct in the early 16th century, Požega was conquered in 1537, and Virovitica in 1552. The Vrbas, Sana and Dubica counties also existed until the Ottoman conquest, while Glaž was last mentioned in preserved historical records in 1469.
Habsburg era