Nearly one third of Croatian households consist of a single member

Single-member households are on the rise in Croatia, while households with three or more members are on the decline, the State Statistics Bureau reported on Wednesday.

Nearly every third household comprises a single individual, according to the 2021 census. Over the past fifty years, households have continued to shrink with the average number of members consistently falling. For example, in 1953, the average household numbered 3.8 people living in the same home. By 2021 that number dropped to 2.7 people, according to the Bureau.

On Wednesday, the Bureau released the final results of the 2021 Census, publishing data on households in cities, municipalities and counties.

The Bureau states that, for example, the share of single households in 1953 was 14.1 percent, while in 2021 the share nearly doubled to 27.8 percent. On the other end of the spectrum, the share of three-member households in 1953 was 18.8 percent and in 2021 it was 17.9 percent. The greatest shift was seen in larger households. The share of these with five or more members in the total number of households was 32.4 percent in 1953, and only 12.4 percent in 2021.

Looking at the 2021 by county, Krapina-Zagorje County had the highest average, 3.1 persons per household, followed by Međimurje County (3.1), then Varaždin County (3.0) and Zagreb County (3.0). On the other end of the spectrum, the smallest households were reported in the Primorsko-Goranska County (2.4), Lika-Senj County (2.4), Šibenik-Knin County (2.5) and the City of Zagreb (2.5).

Croatia had 3,871,833 inhabitants in 2021, of which 3,829,989 or 98.9 percent lived in private households and 41,844 or 1.1 percent in institutional ones.