section_path: Demographics/Healthcare
section_name: Healthcare
paragraph_text: Healthcare
  
  Croatia has a universal health care system, whose roots can be traced back to the Hungarian-Croatian Parliament Act of 1891, providing a form of mandatory insurance of all factory workers and craftsmen. The population is covered by a basic health insurance plan provided by statute and optional insurance. In 2017, annual healthcare related expenditures reached 22.2 billion kuna (around €3.0 billion). Healthcare expenditures comprise only 0.6% of private health insurance and public spending. In 2022, Croatia spent around 7.2% of its GDP on healthcare. In 2025, Croatia ranked 53rd in the world in life expectancy with 75.8 years for men and 81.9 years for women, and it had a low infant mortality rate of 3.3 per 1,000 live births.
  
  There are hundreds of healthcare institutions in Croatia, including 75 hospitals, and 13 clinics with 23,049 beds. The hospitals and clinics care for more than 700 thousand patients per year and employ 6,642 medical doctors, including 4,773 specialists. There is a total of 69,841 health workers. There are 119 emergency units in health centres, responding to more than a million calls. The principal cause of death in 2022 was cardiovascular disease at 34.3% for men and 43.8% for women, followed by hypertensive disease. In 2022 it was estimated that 37% of Croatians are smokers. According to 2022 data, 35.65% of the Croatian adult population is obese.