Discover Croatia

By Dean Durasek, owner and director of GPTD d.o.o., Croatia

Croatia is a country with around 200 private and around 50 public funeral companies. We have several funeral directors associations. The most recognised ones are UPH „Udruga pogrebnika Hrvatske“, „Udruga pogrebnika grada Zagreba“, UPDRH „Udruga pogrebničke djelatnosti Republike Hrvatske“.
The biggest and oldest association in Croatia is “Posmrtna pripomoć”, established in 1974. There are a few hundred cemeteries in Croatia and they present a huge cultural heritage. We have some of the most beautiful cemeteries in the world with immense cultural importance, many of them are listed by UNESO. They are located all over the Country in particular in Varazdin, Zagreb, Karlovac, Vukovar, Pula, Dubrovnik.

The reality of the funeral sector in Croatia is generally still quite basic compared to other European countries. There are around 58.000 deceased per year in Croatia and around 38.000 new-borns which represents a big demographic gap. Cremations represent 10% of the market. There are two crematoriums, one in Zagreb and one in Osijek. Funeral Professionals are fighting to legalize and liberalize the market and to create better business conditions for the undertakers aligning the industry with European standards.

If you would like to learn more about funeral industry in Croatia, we invite you to read whole article in the autumn issue of THANOS magazine - you can read online at pages 14-15

Read online THANOS magazine