For the duration of the course, I have chosen to research and write about the country of Croatia.

In 2012, Croatia had a total population of 4307.4 thousand people. Michigan is roughly three times larger than Croatia. It is predicted to have a population annual growth rate of -0.4 until the year 2030. Croatia’s crude birth rate decreased by 5.7 between 1970 and 2012, whereas its crude death rate increased by 2.1. The decrease in crude birth rate correlates to the negative annual growth rate.

In Croatia, the GNI per capita in 2012, US$ was 13290. Between 2007 and 2011, its public spending allocated to health between was 6.6. Between 2008 and 2010, its public spending allocated to education was 4.4, and its public spending allocated to military was 1.8. Croatia puts more public money towards the importance of health and education than it does its military.

There was no data found for antenatal care or any contraceptive prevalence. There was also very little information about delivery care. The reason why I chose Croatia was because I am curious as to whether or not adequate pregnancy care has become part of Croatia’s medical system since 2012.

The youth literacy rate in males between 2008 and 2012 was 99.6, whereas for females between the same four years, the rate was 99.7. This is a positive look into Croatia’s educational system. It as reported that 113.3 people per 100 population had mobile phones in 2012, and 63 people per 100 population were able to use the Internet. This may have contributed to higher literacy rates in youth.

The annual rate of reduction stayed relatively the same between 1970 and 2012 ranging from 4.4 to 4.7. The percent of reduction since 1990 is 64, and the percent of reduction since 2000 is 43. This specific rate of progress dropped by 21 just within a year.

The only information available in regards to disparities by residence include the percentage of the use of improved sanitation facilities in 2010. In rural areas, this was 97.6, and in urban areas, this was 98.6. There was no data collected for disparities by household wealth. This leads me to believe that Croatia is not considered a wealthy country. I will do further investigation of the reason behind this prior to writing my final post.

Word Count: 400

References

Country statistics. (2015, August 14). Retrieved from https://www.unicef.org/statistics/index_countrystats.html