Jovan Karamata was born in Zagreb on February 1, 1902 into a family descended from merchants based in the city of Zemun, which was then in Austria-Hungary, and now in Serbia. Being of Aromanian origin, the family traced its roots back to Pyrgoi, Eordaia, West Macedonia "(his father Ioannis Karamatas was the president of the "Greek Community of Zemun")". Its business affairs on the borders of the Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires were very well known. In 1914, he finished most of his primary school in Zemun but because of constant warfare on the borderlands, Karamata's father sent him, together with his brothers and his sister, to Switzerland for their own safety. In Lausanne, 1920, he finished primary school oriented towards mathematics and sciences. In the same year he enrolled at the Engineering faculty of Belgrade University and, after several years moved to the Philosophy and Mathematicians sector, where he graduated in 1925.