Republic of Croatia (Croatian Hrvatska republika) is located in the southeastern Europe, on the Balkan Peninsula. Croatia was formerly a constituent republic of Yugoslavia, Croatia declared its independence on June 25th 1999. Croatia lays on the area of 56,538 sq km. This area is divided into 20 counties called županije and The City of Zagreb, which is separate territorial and administrative unit. Croatia’s neighbors are Slovenia and Hungary on the north, on the east and south Bosnia and Herzegovina and on the east by Serbia, constituent republic of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In the south a 20 km wide section of Bosnia extends to the sea and separates narrow coastal strip of Croatia from the rest of the country. Neighbor of this part of the country is Montenegro, other constituent republic of FRY. The west boundary is formed by the Adriatic Sea. Croatian’s coastline is long 5,790 km (mainland 1,778 km, islands 4,012 km). The Croatian biggest mountain range are Dinaric Alps. The highest peak is called Dinara (1830 m above sea level). The coastal range is partially submerged, creating numerous bays, gulfs, inlets and more than 1,000 offshore islands. The historic area of Istria, a peninsula that stretches out into the Adriatic lies to the north and west of Dalmatia, narrow, barren strip of land within Dinaric Alps that slopes down to the Adriatic sea. Largest Croatians islands are Krk (409 sq km), Cres (405,8 sq km), Brač (394,6 sq km) and Hvar (299,7 sq km). Major rivers in Croatia includes European main river Danube (188 km in Croatia), then Sava (562 km), Drava (505 km) – which empty into the Danube, and Kupa (22 km). Major lakes include Lake Vransko (30,7 sq km) and Peruča (13,0 sq km). Maybe the most famous lakes in Croatia are Plitvice lakes (National Park). The Plitvice lakes incorporate a sequence of 16 lakes and the adjacent area. The lakes are connected with numerous waterfalls, the first lake is situated at an altitude of 636 m above sea level. Another very beautiful national parks are Kornati (most indented archipelago in Mediterranean), Brijumi Islands (the most interesting Istrian archipelago because of its cultural, historical and natural features), Krka river (the most beautiful river in Croatian karst with 7 waterfall areas) and others. On this area there lives 4,671,584 inhabitants of Croatia. That’s 83 persons per sq km.