Of the citizens who said they spoke at least one foreign language (79%), most said they spoke English (81%), German (49%), Italian (24%), Spanish (12%) and Russian (9%).
Almost 95% of the population aged between 15-34 said they spoke at least one foreign language, while the percentage dops to 50% in the population aged over 65.
English is a little more popular amongst women in Croatia (84%) than among men (79%). Thirty-two per cent of respondents said they spoke English very well or had an excellent command of the language, most of these being from Zagreb, Dalmatia or Istria and the northern Adriatic.
Sixty per cent of the young (15-24 years of age) said their knowledge of English was good, while 53% of respondents aged 25-34 said they knew English well.
The same number of men and women speak German but these are in the elder age group (over 70%) of respondents over 65. Some people who have no formal school or education also stated that they knew German but only one in every ten said they knew the language well.
More women speak Italian than men and the highest number speaking this language can be found along the northern Adriatic coast, in Zagreb and Dalmatia.
The majority of respondents believe that speaking a foreign language is an important aid when travelling abroad, working with computers and as a method of self-education.
GFK conducted a survey on the knowledge of foreign languages in 2006, when about 50% of the population over 15 said they had at least some knowledge of a foreign language. The latest figures show a significant jump in learning foreign languages in the country.