Specific Characteristics of the Demographic Development of Croatia and its Social and Economic Implications

U ovom su radu analizirane sličnosti i specifičnosti demografskih promjena i procesa u Hrvaskoj i zapadnoeuropskim zemljama. Razmatrane su također socio-ekonomske implikacije promjena u dobnoj strukturi stanovništva i nastalih odnosa između bitnih funkcionalnih dobnih grupa za budući socio-ekonomski razvoj Hrvatske.In this paper, the author analyzes the characteristics of the post-transitional phase in development of the population of Croatia, based on the demographic and statistical criterion of achieving a certain numerical level of the birth-rate, mortality rate, increase in population and other indexes of the population reproduction which differs according to the level of the economic development. The given data show that at the end of the 1980\u27s, Croatia had a similar numeriacal level of these indexes as other West-European counties but that there were differences in the economic development and in other demographic and social determinations of the population reproduction. The author points to the differences in the demographic perspectives of Croatia and the above mentioned counties, caused by the actual economic and social conditions and specific factors that have had an impact on the process of democratic transition in the area of birth-rate/fertality (a long-lasting emigration being of primary value). Various economic implications of the changes in the age structure of the population and particularly the process of ageing itself are also given. It is a demographic process that in the posttransitional countries has coused a change in the age structure, as well as in relation to the number of active beneficiaries and pensioners. In the countries with a different level of economic development and with different social norms of the population reproduction, for example the West-European countries on the one band Croatia on the other, this demographic process creates significant differences, particularly with regard to the possibilities of satisfying the increased resources needed for the satisfaction of the fast increasing number of elderly