NUMBER AND STRUCTURE OF BUSINESS ENTITIES, 2026, BY COUNTIES
Situation as on 30 June 2026

The First Release entitled "Number and Structure of Business Entities, by Counties", was supplemented in 1999 by data taken over from registers and administrative records of other state institutions such as the Register of Tax Payers, Fina’s Register of Annual Financial Reports and the Register of Active Beneficiaries of Pension Insurance.

The content of the First Release has been changed in order to achieve as good an understanding as possible of the data on the number and structure of business entities. The linking allowed for legal entities to be presented by activity and type of ownership, and the data on legal entities to be supplemented by data on crafts and trades and free lances.

The data are presented according to the territorial constitution published in the Act on the Territories of Counties, Towns and Municipalities in the Republic of Croatia (NN, Nos 86/06, 125/06, 16/07, 95/08, 46/10, 145/10, 37/13, 44/13, 45/13 and 110/15). The basic Notes on methodology, given at the end of the First Release, include the definitions and notes necessary for the use of data.

Counties

01	County of Zagreb	08	County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar	15	County of Šibenik-Knin
02	County of Krapina-Zagorje	09	County of Lika-Senj	16	County of Vukovar-Srijem
03	County of Sisak-Moslavina	10	County of Virovitica-Podravina	17	County of Split-Dalmatia
04	County of Karlovac	11	County of Požega-Slavonija	18	County of Istria
05	County of Varaždin	12	County of Slavonski Brod-Posavina	19	County of Dubrovnik-Neretva
06	County of Koprivnica-Križevci	13	County of Zadar	20	County of Međimurje
07	County of Bjelovar-Bilogora	14	County of Osijek-Baranja	21	City of Zagreb

NKD 2025 activity sections
A	Agriculture, forestry and fishing
B	Mining and quarrying
C	Manufacturing
D	Electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply
E	Water supply; sewerage, waste management and remediation activities
F	Construction
G	Wholesale and retail trade
H	Transportation and storage
I	Accommodation and food service activities
J	Publishing, broadcasting and content production and distribution activities
K	Telecommunication, computer programming, consulting, computing infrastructure and other information service activities
L	Financial and insurance activities
M	Real estate activities
N	Professional, scientific and technical activities
O	Administrative and support service activities
P	Public administration and defence; compulsory social security
Q	Education
R	Human health and social work activities
S	Arts, sports and recreation
T	Other service activities
U	Activities of households as employers; undifferentiated goods- and services-producing activities of households for own use
V	Activities of extraterritorial organisations and bodies

The data on legal entities by activities show that registered and active business entities were the most present in the following five activity sections: Wholesale and retail trade with a share of 11.0% of registered and 12.6% of active ones, Other service activities, with a share of 21.2% of registered and 13.6% of active ones, Construction, with a share of 10.3% of registered and 12.4% of active ones, Manufacturing, with a share of 6.8% of registered and 8.5% of active ones, and Professional, scientific and technical activities, with a share of 10.7% of registered and 13.2% of active ones.

The data on the territorial distribution of registered legal entities at the county level show that one third of legal entities present in the mentioned activities was situated in the City of Zagreb, 10.7% were situated in the County of Split-Dalmatia and 7.8% in the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar.

The data on the territorial distribution of business entities at the county level show that a little less than one third of the total number of registered business entities (legal entities) was located in the City of Zagreb. The share of the City of Zagreb in crafts and trades and free lances was significantly lower at 19.6%. The County of Split-Dalmatia held second place in the number of registered legal entities and natural persons, with shares of 10.7% and 14.8%, respectively.

Three counties had more than 5% of the share of registered legal entities: the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar (7.8%), the County of Istria (7.2%) and the County of Zagreb (6.8%). Those three counties were equally distributed regarding the number of natural persons.

The territorial structure of active trade companies differed from the structure of the registered ones. Hence, the City of Zagreb had a share of 33.6% in registered and of 33.0% in active entities, while the share of the second largest county, the County of Split-Dalmatia, was 10.9% in registered and 10.8% in active entities.

Limited liability companies were markedly predominant in the structure of trade companies by legal organisational forms, with a share of 74.0% of registered and 74.8% of active ones. Simple limited liability companies followed, with a share of 25.0% of registered and 24.3% of active ones. Other legal forms of trade companies constituted the remaining share of 1.0%.

The share of active legal entities in the structure of co-operatives and other organisational forms was 29.9% compared to the registered ones.

The structure of active legal entities by ownership types shows that private ownership predominated with 80.8% of entities of that type, while 0.8% of entities were owned by the state, 0.3% of them were in a mixed ownership and 0.3% of entities were in a co-operative ownership. The ownership of 17.8% of legal entities was not monitored.

The structure of ownership by territorial distribution at the county level shows that entities in private ownership were predominant in the City of Zagreb, with a share of 87.6%, followed by the County of Istria, with a share of 84.9%, the County of Zagreb, with a share of 84.5%, and the County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar, with a share of 82.2%.

Counties

01	County of Zagreb	08	County of Primorje-Gorski Kotar	15	County of Šibenik-Knin
02	County of Krapina-Zagorje	09	County of Lika-Senj	16	County of Vukovar-Srijem
03	County of Sisak-Moslavina	10	County of Virovitica-Podravina	17	County of Split-Dalmatia
04	County of Karlovac	11	County of Požega-Slavonija	18	County of Istria
05	County of Varaždin	12	County of Slavonski Brod-Posavina	19	County of Dubrovnik-Neretva
06	County of Koprivnica-Križevci	13	County of Zadar	20	County of Međimurje
07	County of Bjelovar-Bilogora	14	County of Osijek-Baranja	21	City of Zagreb

 

NOTES ON METHODOLOGY

On the basis of the Act on the National Classification of Activities (NN, No. 98/94), the Decision on the National Classification of Activities – NKD 2025 (NN, No. 47/24) and the Ordinance on the Classification of Business Entities According to the National Classification of Activities – NKD 2025 (NN, No. 81/24), the Croatian Bureau of Statistics keeps the Register of Business Entities (hereinafter referred to as: the Register). The Register, pursuant to the provisions of the aforementioned Ordinance, includes legal entities, state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units and parts thereof (hereinafter referred to as: business entities). The Register does not presently include natural persons engaged in activities according to regulations, foreign associations headquartered in the Republic of Croatia and business entities not headquartered in the Republic of Croatia.

The NKD 2025 is based on the Statistical Classification of Economic Activities in the European Community – NACE Rev. 2.1, which is obligatory in EU Member States.

Upon registration, each business entity is assigned a seven-digit registration number, while its constituent parts are assigned an additional ordinal number. All business entities and parts thereof entered in the Register are also assigned an activity code according to the NKD 2025.

Meaning of individual terms

Business entities are legal entities and natural persons that perform activities according to the law, public government bodies (government administration bodies, other government bodies, local and regional self-government units, legal entities and other public authorities, legal entities established by the Republic of Croatia or local and regional self-government units, legal entities performing public service, legal entities financed mostly or completely from the state or local and regional self-government units’ budgets, that is, from public funds (levies, duties, etc.) on the basis of a special act), as well as trade companies in which the Republic of Croatia or the local and regional self-government units hold individual or joint majority ownership.

Registered legal entities (business entities) are units that are entered into the Register. These are: trade companies, institutions, co-operatives, associations, political parties, public government bodies and other non-harmonised units that had legal personality according to the legislation previously in force.

Active legal entities (business entities) are registered legal entities entered into the Register, for which the activity status has been determined according to the eSPRi data.

Natural persons are units that carry out activities in line with the legislation and refer to crafts and trades and free lances.

Legal organisational form is a characteristic of units in the Register that divides them as joint-stock companies, limited liability companies, simple limited liability companies, co-operatives, institutions, associations, state government bodies and bodies of local and regional self-government units and other legal organisational forms. A legal organisational form of the Register units has been determined by a decision of a competent registration body or by a regulation on establishment that is the basis for their entry into the Register.

Type of ownership is a characteristic of units entered into the Register that indicates the ownership structure of the unit and refers to the ownership of assets, that is, to the start-up deposit of a business entity.

Concerning business entities entered into the Commercial Court register, an ownership mark is designated when registering to the Register of Business Entities. As for business entities entered at other registry bodies, the ownership mark is not designated when registering to the Register of Business Entities and, therefore, they are entered under ''No ownership'' under the item Ownership types.

Abbreviations
eSPRi	Statistical Business Register
Fina	Financial Agency
NKD 2025	National Classification of Activities, 2025 version
NN	Narodne novine, official gazette of the Republic of Croatia

Symbols
-	no occurrence

 

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