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In short
- Ports and berths. 216 nautical ports on the Croatian coast in 2025: 86 marinas, 71 anchorages, 16 berths and 43 boat storage areas, with 18,850 berths in the water. (Official source, )
- Fewer boats passing through. 198,918 boats in transit in 2025, 7.3% fewer than in 2024, the third fall in a row. (Official source, )
- More money. The ports earned €195m in 2025. From 2022 to 2025 the ports' income rose 35.7% while the boats in transit fell 15.2%. (Measured by us, )
- August is full. 82.1% of berths in the water were in use in August, the most of any month. (Official source, )
What counts as a nautical port
The Bureau counts every business that rents berths or keeps boats: marinas, anchorages, berths, land marinas and boat storages. (Official source, ) An anchorage in these figures is a buoy field run as a business, not every bay where you can drop an anchor. (Official source, )
Nautical ports by type, 2025
Marinas and anchorages make up most of the 216 nautical ports.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics: Nautical tourism: capacity and turnover of ports, 2025, first page. (Official source, )
The numbers
| Type | Number |
|---|---|
| Marinas | 86 |
| Anchorages | 71 |
| Boat storages | 43 |
| Berths | 16 |
| of them land marinas | 21 |
| All nautical ports | 216 |
The count moves from year to year: there were fewer anchorages in 2025 than in 2022, as the table shows. The releases don't say why, so we don't guess.
| Year | All | Marinas | On land | Anchorages | Berths | Boat storages | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 220 | 86 | 21 | 85 | 16 | 33 | (Official source, ) |
| 2023 | 224 | 85 | 20 | 79 | 17 | 43 | (Official source, ) |
| 2024 | 226 | 85 | 20 | 81 | 16 | 44 | (Official source, ) |
| 2025 | 216 | 86 | 21 | 71 | 16 | 43 | (Official source, ) |
- Marina
- A marina offers berths, stays on board and other services, including food and drink. A land marina keeps boats ashore and launches them. (Official source, )
- Anchorage
- An anchorage here is a nautical anchorage: an area of sea fitted with equipment for mooring boats safely, run as a business. (Official source, )
- Berth
- A berth here is a nautical berth: a specially built area of sea for mooring boats, run as a business. (Official source, )
- Town quays
- The DZS nautical tourism survey counts marinas, nautical anchorages and named nautical moorings, not public town quays. Its transit figures count vessels, not people’s nights.
Fewer boats passing through
A boat in transit is one that stays in a port without a year's contract there, like a visiting yacht or a charter boat away from its base. The count fell in 2023, 2024 and 2025. (Official source, )
Boats in transit, 2022 to 2025
Down 15.2% in three years.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics, releases for 2022 to 2025 (Official source, )
The numbers
| Year | Boats in transit | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 234,496 | |
| 2023 | 224,404 | -4.3% |
| 2024 | 214,632 | -4.4% |
| 2025 | 198,918 | -7.3% |
The Bureau counts boats in transit port by port, so as we read it, one boat on a week's trip can count in several ports. Treat it as a count of stays more than of boats.
Split-Dalmatia is the county around Split and its islands. The County of Split-Dalmatia recorded the most boats in transit of any county in 2025: 54,183 on sea berths in its nautical ports, 27.9% of the total. A boat on a week's trip likely counts once at each port. (Official source, ) Šibenik-Knin came next with 44,954. (Official source, )
More money from fewer boats
The ports earned €195 million without VAT in 2025, 7.9% more than in 2024. Renting berths brought €140 million, 72.1% of it. (Official source, ) Put next to the boats in transit, with 2022 as 100, the two lines go opposite ways.
Income and boats in transit, 2022 = 100
Income up 35.7%, boats in transit down 15.2%.
Our sums from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, releases for 2022 to 2025. (Measured by us, )
The numbers
| Year | Income, € thousand | Income, 2022 = 100 | Boats in transit | Boats, 2022 = 100 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | 143,581 | 100.0 | 234,496 | 100.0 |
| 2023 | 160,924 | 112.1 | 224,404 | 95.7 |
| 2024 | 180,475 | 125.7 | 214,632 | 91.5 |
| 2025 | 194,780 | 135.7 | 198,918 | 84.8 |
The releases don't give prices, so this chart can't say how much a night costs. It shows the ports earning more while fewer boats pass through. The releases don't split the income between boats kept all year and boats in transit. For what a night costs in the ports on our route, see what a week's sailing costs.
When the berths fill up
Two official series tell the season apart. One is every boat on a berth in the water. The other is only the boats kept there on a year's contract. (Official source, )
Berths in the water in use, by month, 2025
In summer the share used by boats on a year's contract falls, and passing boats more than make up for it.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics: Nautical tourism: capacity and turnover of ports, 2025, graphs G-1 and G-2. (Official source, )
The numbers
| Month | All boats | Year's contract | Gap, our sum |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 79.3% | 79.3% | 0.0 |
| February | 79.3% | 79.0% | 0.3 |
| March | 78.9% | 78.8% | 0.1 |
| April | 77.5% | 76.1% | 1.4 |
| May | 72.0% | 69.4% | 2.6 |
| June | 75.6% | 68.5% | 7.1 |
| July | 79.5% | 68.3% | 11.2 |
| August | 82.1% | 67.8% | 14.3 |
| September | 76.4% | 69.4% | 7.0 |
| October | 75.1% | 73.3% | 1.8 |
| November | 80.7% | 80.3% | 0.4 |
| December | 80.4% | 80.3% | 0.1 |
In August 2025, 82.1% of the berths in the water were in use, and 67.8% by boats on a year's contract. So boats without one, mostly boats in transit, used about 14 in every 100. (Measured by us, )
On average 68.7% of all berths were in use in 2025: 78.0% of those in the water and 45.7% of the places on land. (Official source, )
These are averages for the whole coast and the whole month. They say nothing about one harbour on one Saturday night. For that, read the place's own page in our places and plan a Plan B.
Who sails through, and who stays
The flag is where a boat is registered, not where its crew comes from. Half the boats in transit fly the Croatian flag. Italian boats are a far bigger share of the boats in transit than of the boats kept all year. (Official source, )
Boats by flag, 2025
Share of boats in transit, and of boats kept in a port all year.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics: Nautical tourism: capacity and turnover of ports, 2025, graphs G-3 and G-4. Poland's 3.9% of boats kept all year is in "other countries". (Official source, )
The numbers
| Flag | In transit | Kept all year |
|---|---|---|
| Croatia | 49.5% | 46.9% |
| Germany | 12.2% | 15.7% |
| Italy | 11.9% | 2.4% |
| Austria | 6.5% | 14.0% |
| Slovenia | 5.8% | 5.6% |
| Other countries | 14.1% | 15.4% |
Of the boats in transit on berths in the water, 57.2% were sailing boats, 34.1% motor yachts and 8.7% other boats. 36.3% were 12 to 15 m long and 28.6% 10 to 12 m. (Official source, )
16,573 boats were kept in a port on a year's contract in 2025, 1.6% fewer than in 2024. Most were motor yachts (49.3%), then sailing boats (43.5%). (Official source, )
Where the money is
Every county's ports earned more in 2025. Split-Dalmatia earned the most, and Zadar grew fastest. (Official source, )
Income by county, € million, 2025 and 2024
Split-Dalmatia first, Zadar up most.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics: Nautical tourism: capacity and turnover of ports, 2025, Table 2. Income without VAT. (Official source, )
The numbers
| County | 2024, € thousand | 2025, € thousand | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split-Dalmatia | 43,303 | 48,355 | +11.7% |
| Šibenik-Knin | 45,034 | 45,714 | +1.5% |
| Zadar | 35,586 | 40,884 | +14.9% |
| Istria | 23,441 | 25,430 | +8.5% |
| Primorje-Gorski Kotar | 23,067 | 23,769 | +3.0% |
| Dubrovnik-Neretva | 10,043 | 10,627 | +5.8% |
Split-Dalmatia had 1,596 boats kept all year on berths in the water in 2025, 12.1% of the total. Istria had the most, 3,048 (23.1%). (Official source, ) So Split-Dalmatia keeps few boats all year but sees the most boats pass through.
Berths by boat length
Most berths take a boat of 10 to 15 m, the size of a typical charter yacht. The berths for boats of 15 to 20 m grew most in a year. (Official source, )
Berths in the water by boat length, 2025 and 2024
Berths for 12 to 15 m boats are the most common. Berths for 15 to 20 m boats grew by 430.
Croatian Bureau of Statistics: Nautical tourism: capacity and turnover of ports, 2025, Table 1. As on 31 August. (Official source, )
The numbers
| Boat length | 2024 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 6 m | 800 | 813 | +13 |
| 6 to 8 m | 1,623 | 1,308 | -315 |
| 8 to 10 m | 2,270 | 2,186 | -84 |
| 10 to 12 m | 5,151 | 4,899 | -252 |
| 12 to 15 m | 5,657 | 5,583 | -74 |
| 15 to 20 m | 2,586 | 3,016 | +430 |
| Over 20 m | 986 | 1,045 | +59 |
2,047 people worked in nautical ports on 31 Aug 2025, 423 of them in seasonal jobs. (Official source, )
How to use these numbers
Quote them with a link. Journalists, forums and other guides may quote these figures and charts. Please link this page and the Bureau's release.
OlaSail, "Croatia's nautical ports in numbers: what the 2025 statistics say", 7 Oct 2026, from the Croatian Bureau of Statistics release TUR-2025-2-1 of 30 Apr 2026.Our charts and the numbers behind them are free to reuse under CC BY 4.0: credit OlaSail and link this page. How we license our graphics
The Bureau published its last four releases between 26 Apr and 2 May, so the 2026 figures should follow in spring 2027. (Measured by us, ) We will add them here, with the date, and log the change at the foot of this page.
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