Croatian primary and secondary schools in 2026/2027 are attended by 445,231 students, almost 64,000 fewer than 13 years ago.

The number of schoolchildren also decreased compared to last year, by 552. The data from the School e-Mine of the Ministry of Science, Education and Youth is reported by srednja.hr, in an article by journalist Martina Gelenčir.

To make it easier to visualize, almost 64,000 students would fill about 3,760 classes with 17 students each. This comparison illustrates the decline, not the number of actually abolished classes.

Only Zagreb and Istria have more students

The biggest decline is recorded in the east of the country, where 3 Slavonian counties have more than 30% fewer students than in the 2013/2014 school year. Simply put, the number of schoolchildren there has decreased by approximately one third.

Only the City of Zagreb and Istria County have more students than 13 years ago, in both cases by approximately 2%.

Fewer branch schools and fewer students per class

There are 1,022 branch schools this year, while there were 1,220 in 2013/2014. Compared to last year alone, their number decreased by 22.

The change is also visible in classrooms, the average class today has 16.67 students, while 13 years ago it had 19.14.

More first-graders still do not mean a turnaround

This year, 36,840 students enrolled in the first grade of primary school, that is 382 more than last year. This is a positive shift, but the total number of primary and secondary school students is still declining. One larger generation of first-graders has so far not stopped the long-term decrease in the number of students in Croatia.