The survey was conducted in June and July 2017 by Ipsos Puls agency using telephone polls of 2,369 people from across the country and 20 in-depth interviews with people in Zagreb and Split, the two largest cities.
The agency's director, Mile Zivcic, stressed the importance of the Strategic Framework for the Promotion of Life-Long Learning in Croatia 2017-2020, on which the survey was based.
The survey coordinator, sociologist Ivan Buric, said that 6.4 percent of Croatian citizens took part in formal learning programmes, 31 percent in non-formal learning programmes and 68.8 percent in informal learning programmes.
8.4 percent of the respondents wanted to take up some form of formal learning, which is institutional learning with publicly certified programmes, but did not because of the high cost of education, other priorities in life, work obligations, and family obligations.
As many as 19 percent said they intended to participate in some form of non-formal learning, but did not because of obligations at work, other priorities or family obligations, the cost of the programme or the venue of the programme was too far from home. Non-formal learning includes organised activities to improve knowledge, skills and competences without formal certification.
Informal learning results from daily life activities related to work, family or leisure. It is not structured in terms of learning objectives, learning time and learning support.
The index of general satisfaction with formal education is 3.97 (on a scale of 1 to 5), while the index of general satisfaction with non-formal education is 3.97. Respondents said they saw the benefits of life-long learning in increased self-confidence, stronger social capital and the systematisation of their existing knowledge, Buric said.