Istria County - Demographics

Demographics

Over 205,000 people or 4.65% of the nation's population live here. Population density is 73 inhabitants per km2 with an average age of 40.2 years for the entire population.

In addition to Pula, the biggest urban area with 82,000 inhabitants, the cities are Poreč, Rovinj, Pazin, Labin, Novigrad, Umag, Buzet, Buje, Vodnjan. About 70.7% of the population lives in the urban areas.

Municipalities are: Bale, Barban, Brtonigla, Cerovlje, Fažana, Gračišće, Grožnjan, Kanfanar, Karojba, Kaštelir-Labinci, Kršan, Lanišće, Ližnjan, Lupoglav, Marčana, Medulin, Motovun, Oprtalj, Pićan, Raša, Sveti Lovreč, Sveta Nedelja, Sveti Petar u Šumi, Svetvinčenat, Tinjan, Višnjan, Vižinada, Vrsar, Žminj. Numerous are small municipalities and hamlets. In whole Istria there are actually more than 600 of them. So called smallest town in the world - Hum, ("mound") is populated by just three families (22 people).

Besides official Croatian, the Chakavian dialect of the Croatian language is often in use, as in most coastal counties. Italian is also recognized in the county as official language.

In 2001 the population was 206,344 and the population structure was:

• Croats 148,328
• Italians 14,284
• Istrians 8,865
• Serbs 6,614
• Bosniaks 3,077
• Albanians 2,032
• Slovenes 2,020
• Others and Unknown 4,014
• Haven't declared 13,110

Before World War I and until World War II, Istria contained a large autochthonous Romance language speaking community consisting of Venetian dialects, Istriot and Istro-Romanian along with Italian, plus various local Slavic dialects, some of which were likewise unique to Istria. Today, apart from the local dialects and the official Croatian language, one still finds in this region a small community of people, the Istro-Romanians, who speak the ancient Istro-Romanian language, an ancient dialect of Romanian, other districts where Venetian dialects and Istriot are still spoken.

Due to its traditional bond with Europe and its level of international integration, in 1994 Istria County was the first Croatian region to become a member of the Assembly of European Regions.