'Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb'
Abstract
Increasing role of quality of life and standard of living took place in countries all over the world, especially
nowadays, when numerous effects of the global crisis are felt all over the world. Emerging crisis caused many
problems; thereby, in the current situation it is interesting to examine the level of the quality of life and
standard of living. The purpose of this paper is to define standard of living and quality of life using objective
and subjective indicators. Moreover, special emphasis is on the evaluation of quality of life and living standard
in Croatia. After short overview of general development of concepts of standard of living and quality of life,
situation in Croatia is analyzed in more details by using different indicators; GDP per capita, shopping basket,
GFK basket, households’ expenditures, poverty rate, income inequality, HDI, life satisfaction and happiness,
deprivation and optimism about the future. The measures show an increase in the standard of living and quality
of life in Croatia, but more importantly, they also show the trend of constant increase in the living costs and the
rate of poverty. The level of HDI suggests high level of human development and the results of the level of
satisfaction imply that people in Croatia are moderately satisfied with their lives and enjoy a rather high level
of happiness. Concerning optimism about the future, Croatian people are mostly optimistic
