Sex in Croatia

Want to know more about sex in Croatia?

The 18^th most popular tourist destination in the world, Croatia is famous for its naturist beaches, inventing cravat ties, parachutes and torpedoes as well as for its stunning cities like Split, Zagreb and Dubrovnik. Whilst it is in the EU, the country is not on the Euro currency and, as a result, can offer some budget breaks in a stunning location. It is a country that some people still associate with communism though Croatia gained independence over twenty years ago and the war that preceded this ended in 1995. More than 6.5 million people visit Croatia each year with a good many doing so more for pleasure than for business.

In this guide, we take a look at the culture of sex in this former soviet nation as well as looking at the laws on prostitution and pornography. We also take a look at the issue of LGBTQ rights and provide a snapshot at what kind of porn the Croatians are enjoying. Lastly, we give you the best sites for classified personals if you fancy picking up your own Croat.

Sex in Croatia

A nation of around 4.2 million people, Croatia is situated in Eastern Europe and borders the Adriatic Sea to the west, Bosnia to the south, Serbia to the east and Slovenia and Hungary to the north. Since the fall of communism in the 1990s, the country has slowly become a popular tourist destination and, little known to many, offers over a thousand islands and more than 100 Blue Flag beaches, many of which are naturist locations. In fact, over a million tourists alone visit Croatia to take part in their naturist lifestyle and they were the first European country to develop these kinds of resorts.

There is much of Croatia that is staunchly conservative and remains dedicated to the teachings of the Catholic Church; however, the country is evolving rapidly from its recent history as a soviet nation. They are a split community of traditionalists who are of the older generation and the more secular modernists who, largely, belong to the younger generation.

The country is known for being one of the most Catholic countries in Europe, even receiving praise from a Papal official, Archbishop Francisco-Javier Lozano Sebastian for being so. This combination of the heavy influence of religion with a fairly recent past as a communist country, Croatia is understandably finding its feet when it comes to relationships in the modern world. This contradiction can be seen when we look at some statistics about Croatians’ sex lives and views on sex.

According to the Durex Global Sex Survey, Croatians were bang on average for the age that most people lost their virginity. At 17.3 years old, this was the figure also derived as being typical across Europe, Asia and the Americas. At the time, this compared to younger ages across Europe being more prevalent with Iceland posting an average of 15.6 years, Germany 15.9 years and the United Kingdom at 16.6 years.

The same survey revealed that the global average number of sexual partners was 9 yet in Croatia this figure was just 7.5. Compared to Slovakia at 5.4, Iceland at 13 and the United Kingdom at 9.8; India posted an average of just 3 sexual partners.

Croats were also asked to give their views on sex and the following percentages of people agreed with the following statements (compared to the global average and the highest and lowest responding nations):

Statement	Croatia	Global Average	Highest %	Lowest %
I’m happy with my sex life.	52%	44%	Belgium 57%	China 22%
I’m open minded about my sex life.	45%	45%	Poland 76%	Japan 20%
I’m confident about asserting my needs with my partner.	49%	41%	Netherlands 64%	Serbia 19%
I like experimenting with different sex aids.	16%	22%	USA 40%	Thailand 8%
I like to be inspired and look for new ideas.	44%	39%	Austria 60%	Japan 10%
I do not have a high sex drive.	6%	7%	China 17%	Portugal 2%
I wish I had sex more frequently.	33%	36%	Norway 53%	India 19%
My sex life is monotonous.	7%	7%	China 17%	Portugal 3%

Certainly, from these figures, we can see that Croatian’s views on sex are broadly average with a slight reticence for playing with sex aids, more confident asserting their needs in the bedroom and broadly happy with the amount, and kind, of sex they are getting.

And, when it comes to frequency, there is little wonder as to why…Croatians are having sex (on average) 134 times per year, this is topped only by the Greeks who get some bedroom action 138 times a year! The global average is 103 with nations who are the least sexually active being Singapore (73), India (75) and Indonesia (77).

The headlines of the survey also reveal that:

• 17% of Croatians have had an extra-marital affair; this is lower than the global average of 22%.
• 12% of Croatians have tried a threesome which is marginally lower than the global average of 15%.
• 7% of Croatians have engaged in S&M compared to just 5% on average, globally; this is quite high for Europe with neighbouring Serbia registering just 3%.
• 49% of Croatians have tried anal sex compared to just 35% globally; again, this is quite high compared to other European countries.

The Croatians are also pretty adventurous when it comes to where they have all this sex, with:

• 77% having had sex in a car vs 50% (global average); the highest nation was Italy with 82%.
• 53% having had sex in their parent’s bedroom vs 36% (global average); the highest nation wa Serbia with 57%.
• 49% having had sex in the toilets vs 39% (global average); the United States walked home with this one at a whopping 70%.
• 28% having had sex in an alleyway vs 14% (global average); Croatia posted the highest percentage for this category.
• 54% having had sex on a beach vs 28% (global average).

In fact, the only people having more sex on beaches were the Greeks at 57%. However, parts of Croatia are very popular with sex tourists and there are beaches along the Adriatic coast which are proving popular, particularly with swingers. Stretches of beach are known for being home to many orgies and public sex whilst other people record the action or just enjoy the act of watching.

The island of Hvar has also been getting a reputation of late as being the new ‘Magaluf’ and is attracting a lot of Europeans on a boozy holiday that ends with plenty of sex on beaches.

It is worth pointing out that this is illegal and can result in some hefty fines; public nudity (even leaving your shirt off whilst out and about) can also breach Public Order and Peace regulations….except if you are on a nudist beach.

Sex education has not been terribly progressive in Croatia and has links to the Catholic Church. Since 1995, Teen STAR (Sexuality Teaching in the context of Adult Relationships) have been running the curricular. Headed by Dr Hanna Klaus, the programme focused only on chastity-based sex-education. A new curriculum was introduced in 2012 and replaced the one where only teenage girls were being taught about fertility and now also includes adolescent boys.

In fact, much of the material used in schools (prior to 2012) for the subject was lambasted by critics as being ‘inappropriate’ and ‘having no place in sexual and reproductive sex education’. They have also criticised passages which denigrated the LGBT community, including the accusation in the material that those who engage in homosexual relations were ‘the main culprit for increased spreading of sexually transmitted diseases’ (e.g. AIDS).

The replacement curriculum was then criticised by the TeenSTAR group who, together with the Church, took their case to the Constitutional Court claiming that the new programme ‘promoted homosexuality, pornography, promiscuous behaviour and (disguised) paedophilia’.

The court suspended the programme.

A Croatian organisation dealing with gender issues and women’s rights in the country has claimed that sex-education was, and still is, a nearly invisible issue.

The Durex survey from 2005 confirmed that 51% of Croatians were having unprotected sex which is just slightly higher than the global average of 47%. In the Scandinavian countries of Norway and Sweden, these figures were much higher at 73% and 66% respectively whilst people in Asian countries like India (21%), Hong Kong (24%) and China (34%) were found to be much lower risk takers.

The same survey revealed that Croatia was one of just a handful of countries were no respondents reported an unplanned pregnancy under the age of 16, including Poland, Serbia and Indonesia. In fact, 83% of respondents did not report any unplanned pregnancies or sexually transmitted infections. This was higher than the global average of 77%.

In general, we can conclude that the subject of sex in Croatia is a tricky one and one that has many faces. In general, the population seem to have healthy and satisfying attitudes towards sex although there is a heavy influence still from the church in how the matter is dealt with at an institutional level. By and large, the matter is not taboo and there is much evidence to suggest that, far from being influenced by the church, the people of Croatia are embracing a more liberal stance on sex. Certainly, there is a big appetite for both pornography and (though illegal) prostitution. Gay rights have been extended in recent years but there are still marked differences in attitudes between generations as well as between urban and rural populations.

You can find out more about the adult entertainment scene in the capital city of Zagreb in our full feature guide to Escorts and Sex in Zagreb.

Adult Industry in Croatia

Porn is fully legal in Croatia as long as consumers (and participants) are over the age of 18. Despite this, the porn industry in Croatia is not a very active one and there is very little production happening in the country. Commentators believe that there is less of a market for cheap performers than in neighbouring countries like Serbia (see Sex in Serbia) which, combined with a largely more ‘virtuous’ Catholic population, has resulted in a lack of any ‘industry’ to speak of.

Top Croatian Adult Industry Stars

The top porn star from Croatia is Tina Blade, a natural beauty who has no tattoos, piercings or cosmetic surgery. She made over 40 movies during her career and participated in plenty of solo and hardcore action as well as lesbian scenes. Many consider her best work to be her girl-on-girl performances and she worked with some other great names including Gina Gerson, Cayenne Klein and Foxy Di. She worked for most of the top studios including Reality Kings, Evil Angel, Perfect Gonzo and 21 Sextury. Blade retired from the industry in 2015 but has left behind a well sought after archive of material.

Drajica Laurent is known as a French porn star who was active during the 1990s but was actually born in Split, Croatia. She starred in several big feature titles along with icons of porn Asia Carrera, Jenna Jameson and Misty Rain such as Elements of Desire and Stiff Competition II. Though she speaks very little English, she won a Hot d’Or Award in 1995 for her performance in Le Parfum de Mathilde.

According to the popular porn tube site, Videos, the top porn stars from Croatia (ranked by video views and global rankings, ever) are as follows:

Performer	Total Video Views	European Ranking	World Ranking
Tina Blade	57,809,843	401	1,549
Little Red Panty	4,052,409	1,019	4,278
Redfenix79	66,650	1,488	3,999
Angie96	108,703	2,162	6,134
Alexa Wild	2,536,521	3,725	12,388
Hornebees	46,169	5,404	14,554

Interestingly, this list includes a lot of amateurs who outrank the professional studio actresses.

Other Croatian adult stars include:

• Titiella Joy (porn actress)
• Sladjana Petrusic (Playboy model)
• Ira Tigermann (adult model)
• Maja Morales (nude model)
• Mirna Sola (Playboy model)
• Mirjana Plavic (nude model)
• Gianna Apostolski (Playboy model)
• Aleksandra Grdić (model)
• Drazena Gabric (Playboy model)

Prostitution Laws in Croatia

Prostitution is illegal in Croatia and is not that common although can easily be found in cities like Zagreb. Currently, it is the prostitute who carries the risk of being fined and not the client but proposals have twice been tabled to extend the Criminal Code to include ‘purchasing’ sexual services and not just selling.

Plans to legalise prostitution in Croatia have never found legs due to the influence of the Roman Catholic Church.

Historically, prostitution was legal in Croatia but was banned after World War II when the communist state of Yugoslavia was created. Before this period, Zagreb openly advertised its sex industry and Tkalčićeva Street in Zagreb was a centre for vice; at one point, nearly half the buildings along this street were being run as bordellos.

Many of these establishments were quite classy venues and offered gentleman a sophisticated evening of entertainment with singing as well as other pleasures. The Ritz, opening in the 1930s, even staged classical music concerts with some respectable names appearing at the venue.

Even during the 1970s, Zagreb had a reputation for being a centre of prostitution and the demand drew plenty of Croat women from rural locations and, in the post-communist era, from neighbouring countries.

There are reports that Croatia is a transit country for sex-trafficking as well as being a source and destination country for women that have been trafficked.

Latest estimates on the number of prostitutes working in Croatia vary widely with some believing this to be as few as 4,000 whilst others predict the true figure to be more like 12,000.

Croatia: Porn Viewing Trends

According to the Durex Global Sex Survey, 59% of Croatians own pornography which is significantly higher than the global average of 41%. The nation had one of the top figures for this category with only the residents of Thailand ranking higher (62%). They also ranked highest for proportion of people who owned erotic literature at 40%.

So, what kind of porn do the Croats enjoy the most?

In 2018, porn giants Pornhub released some insights into the viewing trends of the Croats which revealed that, despite only being ranked 129^th worldwide for population size, by traffic volume to the site the country is the 53^rd most frequent visitor!

Top searches from within Croatia on Pornhub for 2017 were:

• Jebange (Croatian phrase for ‘having sex’)
• MILF
• ‘Fortnite’ (popular online video game)
• Anal
• Massage
• Gangbang
• Rough Sex
• Hravtska (Croatian)
• Celebrity Sex Tape
• Czech

This is quite interesting as most countries tend to favour their own country as a search term, yet Croatians were less likely than many other nations to be searching for the terms Croatian (or ‘Hravtska’). Compare to this to most European nations where their own country name is ranked as the most popular search term and you can see why it is unusual that  the term ‘Croatian’ ranks just 8^th!

The most popular porn stars viewed from within Croatia are also a bit of surprise with few of the usual suspects hitting the top ten, although most are from the USA:

• Celestia Vega (USA)
• Alyssia Kent (Romania)
• Alexis Texas (Panama)
• Lisa Ann (USA)
• Riley Reid (USA)
• Allison Parker (USA)
• Lana Rhoades (USA)
• Sara Jay (USA)
• Sarah Banks (USA)
• Elsa Jean (USA)

Like their neighbours in Serbia, the proportion of female visitors to Pornhub is very high at 35% vs a global average of just 26%. However, the country has one of the smallest proportions of 18-24 year olds visiting the site at just 16% with the majority of the audience being aged 25-34 (37%).

The average duration of each visit to the site was clocked at 10 minutes and 13 seconds which is 14 seconds longer than the 2017 global average.

Most Croats visit Pornhub on a Monday with Friday being the least busy time of the week.

Pornhub is the most popular adult website in Croatia and is ranked 19^th most visited site across the country and is frequented more than Yahoo, eBay and Reddit.

However, there are other porn and live cam sites that appear within the top 50 most visited websites in Croatia, including:

• X Hamster – 25^th most visited website in Croatia
• Live Jasmin – 34^th most visited website in Croatia
• X Videos – 38^th most visited website in Croatia
• T XXX – 40^th most visited website in Croatia
• XNXX – 46^th most visited website in Croatia

Top Croatian Porn

With very little commercialised porn being produced in the country there are not very many repositories of Croatian porn to speak of. The best archives of porn from Croatia can be found on tube sites like Pornhub and XTube where viewers can get a good range of adult footage from this Balkan nation.

Our top recommendations for Croatian porn can be found as follows:

• Pornhub
• XVideos
• XNXX
• XHamster

LGBTQ in Croatia

Homosexuality was decriminalised in 1951 but was not legalised until 1977 when both gay and lesbians could finally enjoy lawful sexual activity. However, it wasn’t until 1998 before the age of consent was equalised; it is now 15 for both heterosexuals and homosexuals.

The Life Partnership Act was introduced in 2014 and allows same-sex couples (as well as co-habiting heterosexuals) to form a legally recognised union. However, there is no such recognition for same-sex marriage and the constitution of Croatia still solely defines this bond as being exclusively between a man and a woman.

Same-sex couples may not benefit from adoption rights under the Life Partnership Act but separate legislation called ‘partner-guardianship’ does offer an alternative mechanism by which homosexuals may be recognised as co-parents to their step-children.

Transgendered Croats may legally change their gender and, since 2013, may also change their birth certificate; this is the case whether a person has had surgery or has simply started hormone treatment.

Members of the LGBT community are allowed to serve openly in the armed forces and discrimination within the ranks towards other serving personnel based on gender identity or sexual orientation is not tolerated.

The capital city of Zagreb has the largest population of homosexuals and LGBTQ residents and has an active gay scene. There are plenty of bars, clubs and venues that are queer owned, managed or operated or that welcome diversity in its clientele.

Other cities in Croatia that house large LGBTQ populations include Dubrovnik, Rijeka, Hvar and Rab. Zagreb, Split and Osijek also hold annual Pride marches that are generally well-attended and very peaceable.

As a result, LGBTQ tourism in Croatia is popular and the country is largely viewed as being ‘gay-friendly’. In fact, the Gay European Tourism Association (GETA) lists more than 50 gay-friendly destinations and hotels in the country.

The country on the whole is quite liberal minded and Croatia was ranked 5^th in Europe (out of 49 observed countries) in the 2015 International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association survey assessing LGBTQ rights. The country is also one of 11 member countries within the United Nations specifically representing LGBTQ rights and aiming to end violence and discrimination.

Leading by example in this regard, it is against the law to discriminate against anyone on the grounds of their gender identity or sexual orientation and this has been enshrined in law since 2003.

However, just like in other parts of Europe, the LGBTQ community, unfortunately, do face incidences of discrimination, violence and abuse, particularly in some parts of Croatia, but these kinds of acts are recognised as hate crimes and the authorities take them very seriously.

It is true that the conservative political party (HDZ) in Croatia are opposed to LGBT rights and assert that the country is principally a catholic nation and that ‘family values’ must prevail; however, there are still quite a few high-profile members of HDZ that support LGBTQ rights and the party has even enacted laws in support of areas such as anti-discrimination.

The Roman Catholic Church itself is also against the extension of further rights to the community and has engaged politics at a national level during 2013 when it was very active, collecting signatures for a petition against a change in the constitution to allow gay marriage.

Overall, the situation in Croatia is vastly improved from a few decades ago and has seen massive changes in public opinion towards a more supportive one and the community at large (and tourists) have benefitted from lots of positive legislation to protect their rights.

Top Classified/Personals Sites in Croatia

Online dating is becoming more popular in Croatia and plenty of singles (particularly those in the age range 18-35) hit the internet before they hit the bars. Whilst some are lonely hearts looking for love, there appears to be quite a market for casual hook ups and one-night stands.

That being said, there is significantly less people using these kinds of sites than you would expect. Certainly, the highest proportion of users are located in the capital of Zagreb with very little coverage outside of this area.

Outside of Zagreb (and still very much so in the capital), dating is conducted in the traditional way with most singles meeting each other in local bars and clubs or through mutual connections. The concentration of singles gets lower the further away from the main cities you get as young people in rural communities tend to settle down quite early.

Some big names are included in the most popular websites in the ‘Relationships and Dating’ category visited in Croatia (data sourced from SimilarWeb) with the top five being:

• Badoo
• Tinder
• OK Cupid
• Flirt Café (German version)
• F Dating

Both Badoo and Tinder have a reputation for mainly being used by those who are in the market for a casual encounter whilst the other three have a good mix of users.

They all offer free sign up and have a good reputation for facilitating quick and easy matches without having to complete endless profiles and questionnaires.

Other popular sites (for English speakers), that offer free account registration include:

• Love Awake
• Love Compass
• Mingle 2

It is worth pointing out that the majority of free internet dating sites in Croatia are a common way for both escorts and scammers to find their clients/victims so do be cautious of those profiles that look too good to be true….they probably are.

One way of finding personal ads in Croatia is to hit the ‘osobni kontakti’ section of papers like Oglasnik. Here you can find listings for women looking for casual encounters, but, be warned, there are often just as many ladies who are actually escorts.

Lastly, the Croatian dating site Iskricka is probably the only site that is widely well-subscribed to in the country. It receives over half a million visits per month with users staying on the site for well over 10-12 minutes at a time. On average, a user visits 15 pages per visit which is a clear indicator of an active user-base.

The only down side is that the site is in Croatian so if you don’t speak the language then you will be out of luck.

We’ll leave you with this statistic, gathered from the Durex Global Sex Survey, that half of all Croatians (50%) have had a one night stand. Compared to the global average of 44% and neighbouring countries like Serbia (41%), this stands the casual dater in good stead for a hook-up.

Featured image via Pixabay.