Rural depopulation is a serious problem across Europe, and existing research indicates that 40% of the EU’s area, home to nearly one-third of its population, is experiencing sustained population decline. Eastern and Southern Europe is the area where rural depopulation is most widespread. In Croatia, which lost almost 10% of its total population between 2011 and 2021, rural depopulation affected more than 90% of rural areas, with a total loss of almost 200,000 inhabitants (DEGURBA classification). However, demographic decline, often referred to as simple shrinking, only partially reveals the multi-faceted nature of complex rural shrinkage processes that can impact the economy and society at large, triggering cumulative causation and vicious cycles of decline. To gain a deeper understanding of complex shrinkage in rural Croatia, especially its economic dimension, this research focuses on the business environment. To explore new opportunities for this task, we investigated recently available datasets of fiscal receipts obtained from the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of Croatia – Tax Administration – for the period from the beginning of 2018 to the end of 2022 at the spatial level of settlements (6750 units). Mandatory fiscalization of cash transactions was introduced into Croatian economic legislation in several phases, but as of July 2017, almost all businesses, small and large, were required to operate with such a system and issue fiscal receipt after each transaction. The spatial data analysis and visualization for the mentioned five years period gives a insight into the two important variables for fiscalization transactions: number of receipts and amount of money. The initial data processing in GIS gives a clear picture of the economic landscape of rural Croatia, which consists of active regions and vast areas that either have no significant economy or whose economy is ‘under the radar of fiscalization’ (informal or grey economy).

Luka Valozic, Aleksandar Lukic, Ivan Sisak
University of Zagreb, Faculty of Science, Department of Geography

 
ID Abstract: 838