The objective of this paper is an analysis of the characteristics of agricultural insurance in the Republic of Croatia. For this purpose, a survey was conducted covering the time period from 2005 and ending with 2019, within which the following was analyzed: (a) the number of the insurance policies for crop production and animal insurance; (b) crop production insurance premium and animal insurance premium; (c) the share of the total agricultural insurance premium in the total non-life insurance premium; (d) the number of claims paid for agricultural insurance premium subsidies. This paper uses analysis, synthesis, descriptive, as well as a statistical method. The sources of data are statistical reports, as well as reports from relevant authorities and institutions in the Republic of Croatia. Agriculture is of great economic importance in the Republic of Croatia, although the share of this economic activity in the formation of gross domestic product is relatively small. This share was only 4.5% in 2018. The economic importance of agriculture is explained by its role in rural development and the fact that in the Republic of Croatia as much as 91.6% of the territory consists of rural areas, according to the categorization of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The Republic of Croatia has favorable conditions for the development of agricultural insurance, from the aspect of the available structure of used agricultural land and livestock, satisfactory offers on the agricultural insurance market, as well as high subsidies for agricultural insurance premiums. Unfavorable circumstances for the development of agricultural insurance in the Republic of Croatia are the small average size of holdings of family farms, which in 2018 was only 5.3 ha. The small size of holdings prevents efficient agricultural production, and thus greater application of its economic protection, i.e., agricultural insurance. In addition, an unfavorable circumstance for the development of agricultural insurance in the Republic of Croatia is the fact that the structure of farmers is dominated by those older than 65 and those with a high school education. This is not agreeable from the aspect of readiness for education and the application of agricultural insurance on a larger scale. The author concludes that agricultural insurance in the Republic of Croatia is insufficiently developed, given that a small percentage of family farms, as the most represented agricultural entities in the Republic of Croatia, apply economic protection to their production, i.e., agricultural insurance. Despite high subsidies, which amount to 70% of agricultural insurance premiums, in 2018 in the Republic of Croatia only 4.26% of the total number of family farms was insured. In the Republic of Croatia, a total of 348,810 agricultural insurance policies was concluded during the analyzed period. According to their structure, crop insurance policies make up 86%, and animal insurance policies only 14%.
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