20+ Differences between Croatia vs. Serbia (Explained)

Two countries that emerged from the remnants of the bigger, long-gone Yugoslavia are Croatia and Serbia.

To put it briefly, they were a part of the wider group that, in the early 20th century, had united nations from South-eastern and Central Europe to establish what was known as the Land of Southern Slavs.

After the First World War, Yugoslavia was created. The title granted to it was the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes.

The foundation was brought about by the merger of the Slovene, Serb, and Croatian temporary states. The monarchy was recognized formally on July 13, 1922. The Kingdom of Yugoslavia became the official name of the nation on October 3, 1929.

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Key Differences:

Croatia

  1. June 25, 1991, marked Croatia’s declaration of independence.
  2. The number of Croats in the globe in 2017 was estimated at 4.29 million.
  3. All of Croatia is 56,594 square kilometers.
  4. Five thousand eight hundred thirty-five kilometers of shoreline make up Croatia. This covers 1,777 kilometers of the continent and 4,058 kilometers of islands.
  5. Croatia has membership in both the European Union and NATO.
  6. Catholicism is most common among Croats. Roman Catholics, who comprise 86.3 percent of all religious adherents, also practice Orthodoxy, Islam, and other faiths.
  7. The country of Croatia is divided into 20 counties.

Serbia

  1. On June 5, 2006, Serbia formally declared its independence.
  2. According to estimations, there were 7.11 million Serbs. Serbs were not counted among the population of Kosovo, which is now contested.
  3. Serbia covers an area of 77,474 km2.
  4. Serbia is a landlocked nation, in comparison.
  5. Serbia is not a part of the EU or NATO, on the other hand.
  6. Serbs make up the bulk of Serbia’s Orthodox population, making up approximately 84.6% of the total population. The remainder is divided between Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Atheists, and other religions, in that order.
  7. Municipalities and cities make up Serbia’s national government. In all, the area consists of 119 municipalities and 26 cities.

Comparison Between Croatia And Serbia

ParameterWeb DeveloperSoftware Developer
IndependenceCroatia broke apart from Yugoslavia in 1991.In 2006, Serbia won independence from the State Federation of Serbia and Montenegro.
PeopleThe majority of people, 90.4%, are Croats. Serbians make up 4.4 percent of the populace.Serbs make up roughly 83 percent of the population, with tiny amounts of other tribes, like Hungarians, making up 3.5%.
Religious beliefsMost Croats practice Roman Catholicism. Orthodox, Muslims, and other groups are other divisions.An estimated 84.6 percent of Serbians identify as Orthodox, making up the majority of the population. Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, atheists, and others are among the others.
AffiliationsCroatia belongs to both the European Union and NATO in terms of membership.Serbia, however, is not a part of either NATO or the EU.
LocationAt the meeting point of Central and Southeastern Europe sits the Republic of Croatia. It borders the Adriatic Sea on one side.The Republic of Serbia is a landlocked nation in Southeastern and Central Europe that is located at the meeting point of the Balkans and the Pannonian Plain.
TourismTourism, which may make up to 20% of a country’s GDP, dominates the service sector in Croatia. Tourism brought in an estimated €10.5 billion in 2019. Its advantageous effects are felt across the economy, boosting retail purchases and seasonal employment.Despite not being a well-known tourism destination, Serbia has a large selection of travel-related products. In 2019, the tourist industry produced an estimated $1.5 billion. Half of the 3.6 million visitors who stayed in hotels were from abroad.
EducationSerbia boasts a wide variety of travel-related goods despite not being a popular tourist destination. An estimated $1.5 billion was created by the tourism sector in 2019. Foreign tourists comprised about half of the 3.6 million people who stayed in hotels.98 percent of the population in Serbia is literate, and education there begins in either preschools or primary schools. Kids start attending elementary school when they are seven years old.

Major Differences Between Croatia And Serbia

What is Croatia?

The southeast European nation of Croatia has a diverse geography. Zagreb serves as its capital. Additionally, Croatia’s crescent-shaped nation features several islands, flat plains that run along Hungary’s border, and mountainous terrain and hills close to the Adriatic coast.

Its neighbors influence the architectural styles of Croatia. The public spaces and buildings in the north and center areas have Austrian and Hungarian influence, while the Venetian style influences the architecture found along the Dalmatian and Istrian coasts. 

Croatian towns and cities, especially those with substantial Baroque urban design, such as Osijek (Tvrda), Varazdin, and Karlovac, contain parks, pedestrian-only areas, and squares named after cultural icons.

Due to its extensive shoreline, over a thousand Adriatic Sea islands, a variety of historic cities and villages, and pleasant Mediterranean climate, the country has become a popular weekend destination in Europe.

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Features of Croatia:

  1. Due to its extensive Adriatic coastline, Croatia enjoys easy access to major maritime lanes. It speaks foreign languages fluently, reflecting and assisting the tourism industry.
  2. The industrial and service sectors employ the bulk of educated workers.
  3. Due to mergers, acquisitions, and bankruptcies during the late 1990s, the banking sector has seen a substantial amount of consolidation.
  4. By the time the communists seized control of Yugoslavia in 1945, it was already more industrialized than the majority of its neighbors.
  5. Under socialist economic and social development programs, Croatia continued to industrialize quickly.
  6. The Pannonian lowlands of eastern Slavonia have oil and natural gas reserves, but Croatia depends on imports since it uses more oil and gas than it produces.
  7. Less than one-fourth of Croatia’s land is used for grazing and farming, which accounts for less than one-tenth of the nation’s GDP.
  8. Rapid urbanization and the ensuing exodus from rural regions were the main demographic trends of the post-World War II era.
  9. This was particularly true of the middle mountain belt’s less-developed karstic regions of Lika and Gorski Kotar.
  10. It also occurred from the Adriatic islands of Dalmatia and Banija and Baranja in the Pannonian area.
  11. Urban regions are home to more than half of the population, notably in the upper arm of the nation and along the Adriatic coast.
  12. Croats speak a South Dialect from the Indo-European linguistic family called Croatian. In the republic, several ethnic groups cohabit.

What is Serbia?

A landlocked nation in Southeastern and Central Europe, the State of Serbia sits where the Pannonian Plain and the Balkans converge.

As its capital, Belgrade, in various Serbian royal cities and palaces, including Sirmium, Felix Romuliana, and Justiniana Prima—the site of the Justiniana Prima Archbishopric since 535—archaeological remnants from Roman and earlier Byzantine Empires may be observed.

Serbian monasteries were greatly influenced by Byzantine art, particularly when Constantinople fell in 1204 and a large number of Byzantine artists moved to Serbia. 

In the vicinity of 1190, one of them, Studenica, served as a prototype for future monks like Mileseva, Sopocani, Gracanica, and Visoki Decani.

Along with Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, and North Macedonia, it also claims land borders with all of these nations.

These boundaries with North Macedonia’s neighbors to the north include Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, and North Macedonia’s neighbor to the south is North Macedonia. It also shares a sea boundary with Albania through the contested land of Kosovo.

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Features of Serbia:

  1. Before the start of the war in the 1990s, Yugoslavia had built a cutting-edge communications network.
  2. Serbia has long served as a junction for trade routes between central Europe and the Mediterranean, dating back to the ancient Amber Routes.
  3. When it comes to improving its transportation infrastructure, it has fallen behind other regions of the continent.
  4. In Serbia, the service industry employs roughly one-third of the workforce, while industrial employment makes up nearly half of all employment.
  5. The unusual architecture and paintings of Serbia’s ancient Orthodox monasteries have long drawn tourists.
  6. Germany and Italy are the two most significant commercial partners for the nation. Other significant trading relationships include China, Hungary, Switzerland, and Russia.
  7. The central banking organization, the National Bank of Serbia, controls the national currency.
  8. The majority of manufacturing is located in the north, mainly in the Belgrade area. Serbia is well-endowed with natural resources, yet it lacks mineral fuels significantly.
  9. This offers the benefits of having a well-established infrastructure, a skilled labor force, the republic’s largest single market, and the highest concentration of active businesses.
  10. Serbia, which lacks nuclear power plants, relies mostly on coal and hydroelectric electricity.
  11. Serbia’s economy has always been based mostly on agriculture.
  12. Despite the fact that less than one-fourth of economically active Serbs are currently farmers, agriculture makes up roughly two-thirds of Serbia’s geographical area.

Comparison Of Croatia And Serbia

Independence: 

  • Croatia- Croatia became independent on June 25, 1991.
  • Serbia- Serbia declared its independence on June 5, 2006.

Population: 

  • Croatia- According to estimates, there were 4.29 million Croats in the world in 2017.
  • Serbia- The number of Serbs was 7.11 million, according to estimates. The population of Kosovo, which is currently disputed, was not included in the Serb population.

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Similarities between Croatia and Serbia

  1. Both nations are former Yugoslavia members. Additionally, they are situated in Southeast Europe.
  2. The two counties are somewhat similar geographically. Only Croatia and Serbia have a sizable portion of the lowlands among the former nations of Yugoslavia.
  3. Regarding the language employed for communication, there are no linguistic differences.
  4. Neo-Shtokavian has become the language of choice in both nations.
  5. The two nations’ political structures also share many characteristics. Both of them use the parliamentary republic form of governance.

Area: 

  • Croatia- 56,594 square kilometers make up all of Croatia.
  • Serbia- Serbia is 77,474 square kilometers large.

Shoreline: 

  • Croatia- Croatia has a 5,835 km long coastline. This spans 4,058 km of islands and 1,777 km of the continent.
  • Serbia- Serbia, in contrast, is a landlocked country.

Bonds: 

  • Croatia- In terms of membership, Croatia is a part of both NATO and the European Union.
  • Serbia- Serbia, on the other hand, is not a member of either the EU or NATO.

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Weather and Soil of Croatia:

  1. The Sava and Drava rivers have left behind alluvial soil that has enriched the Pannonian and para-Pannonian plains.
  2. The most fertile agricultural regions of Croatia are found in these lowlands, which comprise the nation’s breadbasket.
  3. The central mountainous belt’s soil is generally poor, although it does provide some cultivable land in the form of fields and meadows as well as some grazing area in the form of plateaus. 
  4. The majority of the Croatian littoral is rugged, desolate, and has rocky soil that is unsuitable for agriculture. Croatia is dominated by two primary climate zones.
  5. A continental climate with warm summers and chilly winters is typical of the Pannonian and para-Pannonian plains, as well as the mountainous areas.
  6. Although they might vary from a low of 5 °F in the winter to a high of 105 °F in the summer, temperatures in the plains typically range between the low 70s F in June to the low 30s F in January.
  7. With warmer weather in the lowlands, the central mountain ranges of Lika and Krbava experience slightly colder summers and chilly winters.
  8. Between roughly 65 °F in June and the high 20s F in January, the average temperature ranges.
  9. The area is known for its heavy rains, which turn to snow in the winter. The islands, Istria, and the Dalmatian coast all have a moderate Mediterranean climate.
  10. Summers are bright, warm, and dry, while winters are wet in southern Dalmatia, where the sirocco winds—known locally as the Yugo—bring a moderating impact from Africa.
  11. The cool northeast wind, known as the bora, causes the winters to be drier and colder in the north (bora).
  12. The islands and the shore are cooled by the mistral breeze in the summer. The majority of the year’s rainfall falls during the winter.
  13. In January, the temperature is in the low 40s F (about five °C), while in June, it is in the low 70s F (low 20s C).

Religions: 

  • Croatia- Most Croats identify as Catholic. The Orthodox, Muslim, and other religions are followed by Roman Catholics, who make up 86.3% of all religions.
  • Serbia- 84.6 percent of the population are Serbs, who make up the majority of the Orthodox community in Serbia. Catholics, Muslims, Protestants, Atheists, and other religions, in that order, account for the remaining percentage.

Municipalities: 

  • Croatia- The 20 counties that make up Croatia’s administrative divisions.
  • Serbia- Cities and municipalities serve as the administrative divisions of Serbia. There are 26 cities and 119 municipalities overall.

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Weather and Soil of Serbia

  1. The region is characterized by three main soil types that correlate to the major divides in its landforms and climate.
  2. Black earth soils with high levels of organic matter are typical of the Vojvodina’s subhumid plains and tablelands to the north and east of the Danube (chernozems). 
  3. This was created by the rotting root systems of innumerable natural grass generations. In Belgrade, the average temperature varies by 40 °F (22 °C) from January to July.
  4. The soils are often brown podzolic, which are less productive and have a mild acidity, in the wooded hills and mountains to the south of the Danube.
  5. These have been improved in farmed regions by the addition of nutrients from fodder crops and animal manures.
  6. In the highlands, infertile podzol soils are common. They are distinguished by an upper layer that is ash-colored from all the leaching.
  7. However, the acids produced by the gradual decomposition of pine needles and other forest floor debris dissolved their insoluble quartz particles.
  8. Significant climate variations may be seen throughout Serbia as a result of variations in height and wind exposure.
  9. The weather is generally continental, with cold, comparatively dry winters and warm, muggy summers.
  10. The Vojvodina best demonstrates the features of the continental climate. Throughout the whole year, air masses mostly originate in eastern and northern Europe.
  11. The average temperature in July is approximately 71 °F (22 °C), and the average temperature in January is around 30 °F (1 °C).
  12. Serbia’s hilly regions see noticeably milder summer temperatures, with an average high of 64 °F (18 °C).

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Q1. Does Serbia Have a Nota Membership?

Agriculture has long been the mainstay of the Serbian economy. Even though fewer than one-fourth of Serbs who are now engaged in the labor force are farmers, nearly two-thirds of Serbia’s land area is devoted to agriculture.

Q2. Is Serbia a part of the European Union?

On December 22, 2009, Serbia submitted an official membership application to the EU. The talks for accession are still going on.

Serbia will be able to join the Union in 2025 if its talks are successful by the end of 2024.

Q3. What is Croatia famous for?

Croatia is a stunning nation in the western Balkans and a former Yugoslav republic.

Although both honeymooners and backpackers love it, it’s recently seen a little rebirth. Game of Thrones, waterfalls, and red tourism are its main claims to fame.

Q4. Which agricultural products does Croatia produce?

While possessing ideal circumstances for the development of many other agricultural goods, Croatia is self-sufficient in the cultivation of wheat, corn, poultry, eggs, and wine.

Despite this, imports of food and agricultural products are rising.


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