Croatia — Regional Market index

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---
schema: foundry-doc-v1
title: "Croatia — Regional Market index"
slug: atlas-croatia
category: markets
type: topic
index_group: country-breakouts
content_type: topic
quality: stub
status: active
audience: customer-woodfine
bcsc_class: current-fact
language_protocol: PROSE-TOPIC
keynote: false
last_edited: 2026-08-25
editor: editorial
short_description: "Index of Croatia's nine Regional Markets meeting co-location screening thresholds under the 2026-08-07 dataset."
paired_with: markets/atlas-croatia.es.md
---

The **Croatia regional market index** lists the nine Croatian markets that meet the co-location
screening framework's composition gates under the current 2026-08-07 dataset. The nine markets run
the length of the country, from Zagreb in the north to Split, Zadar, and Šibenik along the
Dalmatian coast, rather than clustering around a single metropolitan core.

## Coverage

No rank or score is published for any market in this table. Every market below qualifies under
the framework's Regional Market composition gate — a hypermarket anchor paired with at least two
of {hardware, price club, lifestyle, electronics, sport} across the market's co-location clusters.
Full methodology: [[about-regional-markets-system|Regional Markets Intelligence System]].

The metropolitan reference point recorded for each market is the nearest major metropolitan
centre in the framework's continental reference set — a straight-line (crow-flies) distance
measurement, not a drive-time or commuting estimate. It is not a claim that the market functions
as a commuter suburb of that centre. Every one of Croatia's nine reference points sits outside the
country: Graz, Austria (three entries), Timișoara, Romania (two entries), Trieste, Italy (one
entry), and Ancona, Italy (three entries). This is a consequence of the framework's continental
reference-point set, not a claim about any real commuting relationship, and three of the nine
reference points cross the Adriatic Sea rather than a land border. Zagreb, Croatia's own capital
and largest city, is itself among the nine. It carries Regional Market classification and a Graz
reference point despite functioning as the country's primary metropolitan core, not a suburb of
any other city.

Catchment population has not been computed for any of the nine Croatian markets in the current
dataset build — Croatia is one of six European countries without this figure in the 2026-08-07
release, alongside Bulgaria, Finland, Norway, Romania, and Sweden. Each profile page states this
plainly rather than presenting an unavailable figure as zero or omitting the gap silently.

## Markets

This table is a country-specific view of the continental
[[atlas-top-400-europe|Top 400 Regional Markets — Europe]] set. No rank or score is published for
any market.

| Market | Metropolitan reference | km | T1 | T2 | T3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| [[hr-istria-pula-pola|Pula]] | Trieste (Italy) | 86.3 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [[hr-northern-croatia-varazdin|Varaždin]] | Graz (Austria) | 111.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [[hr-central-croatia-zagreb|Zagreb]] | Graz (Austria) | 147.4 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| [[hr-dalmatia-zadar|Zadar]] | Ancona (Italy) | 179.1 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [[hr-central-croatia-sisak|Sisak]] | Graz (Austria) | 189.2 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [[hr-slavonia-osijek|Osijek]] | Timișoara (Romania) | 199.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| [[hr-dalmatia-sibenik|Šibenik]] | Ancona (Italy) | 213.8 | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| [[hr-posavina-slavonski-brod|Slavonski Brod]] | Timișoara (Romania) | 255.8 | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| [[hr-dalmatia-split|Split]] | Ancona (Italy) | 256.0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |

## Retail and Civic Anchors

Kaufland and Pevex anchor all nine clusters — the only two chains present in every entry, a
hypermarket and hardware pairing rather than the single dominant chain seen in Greece. Interspar
(hypermarket) and Hervis (sport) each appear in seven of the nine; Decathlon (sport) in six;
Bauhaus (hardware) in five. Civic infrastructure varies sharply by market: Zagreb and Split each
draw on their namesake public universities' dozens of faculties and multiple major hospitals,
while Zadar, Varaždin, and Pula anchor around a single named regional university. Sisak and
Slavonski Brod each carry a single satellite University of Zagreb faculty rather than a full
campus. Šibenik's civic anchor is a public open-learning institution rather than a
degree-granting university, and Osijek's two clusters record no civic anchor at all in the current
dataset — a real, disclosed gap rather than an editorial omission.

## AEC Data Coverage

Climate, seismic, and wildfire-hazard data has been computed for none of Croatia's nine clusters
to date — a wider gap than Greece's two of seven. Coverage for all nine clusters — Zagreb, Osijek,
Pula, Sisak, Slavonski Brod, Split, Varaždin, Zadar, and Šibenik — is pending in the current
dataset build; see [[gis-data-overview|GIS Data Overview]] for the AEC data pipeline.

## See also

- [[atlas-top-400-europe]] — the continental European Top 400 table this page filters
- [[about-regional-markets-system]] — the co-location methodology and market selection criteria