In Croatia, the number of empty apartments increased by as much as 43 percent, according to the results of the latest Census of Population, Households and Apartments.
The six and a half percent increase in the total number of apartments, which now stands at 2,391,944 compared to the situation in the 2011 Census, was also reflected in the increase in the main groups of apartments according to the way they are used.
The number of apartments for permanent residence, which includes occupied and temporarily uninhabited, i.e. empty apartments, increased by 6.1 percent to 2,028,725, the State Bureau of Statistics (DZS) announced on Tuesday.
Occupied apartments decreased by 4.2 percent, while the number of temporarily uninhabited apartments increased significantly by as much as 43 percent.
Croatia has 600,000 uninhabited apartments and 231,000 holiday homes, according to data from the Central Statistics Office.
When the data on apartments is connected with the negative natural movement of the population, it can be seen that there are fewer and fewer people, and more and more empty houses and apartments, said Dubravka Rogić-Hadžalić, Head of Demographic and Social Statistics at the CBS, to Hina.