The Registar otoka counts 1,244 islands, islets and reefs. Seventy-eight are true islands and fifty-two are permanently inhabited, holding 127,838 people. Nearly three in ten islanders are over 65, and that is why the ferry timetable thins from October, when the summer operators stop.
What the register actually counts
The Registar otoka splits 1,244 units into 78 islands, 524 islets and 642 reefs. Of the islands, 52 are permanently inhabited plus the Pelješac peninsula, between them holding 355 settlements and 127,838 residents at the 2021 census, spread across 7 counties, 18 cities and 41 municipalities. Almost every list of “Croatian islands” you will read is a list of about a dozen.
29.03 %
of island residents are 65 or over, against 22.45 % nationally
That single figure explains more about island travel than any beach photograph. Island population density is 37.4 per km² against 68.4 nationally, and the resident population skews old. State ferry lines carry a public service obligation to those residents: a school run, a hospital appointment, a delivery. They run in February because someone needs them to. Commercial lines carry no such obligation, and they are the ones that disappear.
68 routes, and where they leave from
The 2026 state coastal line register lists 68 routes: 24 car ferries, 33 catamarans and 11 passenger ships, of which 24 carry vehicles at all. Grouped the way the register groups them, the distribution is lopsided in a way that decides where an island holiday is easy.
| Register group | Routes | Car ferries | Foot passengers only |
|---|---|---|---|
| Split and central Dalmatia | 17 | 10 | 7 |
| Zadar and the Zadar archipelago | 15 | 6 | 9 |
| Kvarner and the north Adriatic | 9 | 5 | 4 |
| Šibenik | 4 | 1 | 3 |
| Dubrovnik and south Dalmatia | 5 | 2 | 3 |
| Cross-Adriatic (Pula – Zadar) | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Commercial lines, no public service obligation | 17 | 0 | 17 |
Dubrovnik has five state routes. Zadar has fifteen. Split has seventeen and takes most of the 17 commercial lines on top. If you are planning around the far south, you are planning around a thin network — which is why the Elafiti and Mljet reward a timetable check that Brač does not.
Islands connect to the mainland, not to each other
Of the 68 routes in the register, 5 run island to island and nothing else: the Lošinj archipelago lines 310 and 311, Valbiska to Merag and Lopar to Valbiska in Kvarner, and Komiža to Biševo off Vis. Everything else has a mainland or peninsula port at one end.
The consequence is that a chain of islands is really a chain of mainland gateways, and the boats that appear to link islands directly — Split to Hvar to Korčula to Dubrovnik — are through-boats run commercially. They are the first thing to stop in autumn, and the itinerary they support is a summer itinerary whether or not anyone said so when you booked it.
So the real question is not which island is prettiest. It is which mainland city you are flying into, and how many nights you have. Those two answers narrow the list to one or two islands with enough sailings to be forgiving.
Which island, from where
Arriving at
Nights you can give it
Day trips from Split →
Every one of those answers is a connectivity answer, not a taste one. Two islands can be equally beautiful and one of them will strand you. If you want the list ordered by how reliably you can leave, that is the ranked comparison.
52 inhabited islands, 355 settlements
The settlement count is the figure that turns a map into an itinerary. 355 settlements sit on the 52 permanently inhabited islands, organised into 18 cities and 41 municipalities across 7 counties. That is an average of under seven settlements per island, and the distribution is far more lopsided than the average suggests. Cres at 405.7 km² and Krk at 405.2 km² are the two largest, with Brač at 395.4 km² behind them; below the top handful the register's 78 islands shade quickly into places with one pier and one shop.
For a visitor the practical choice is therefore not among seventy-eight islands. It is among the dozen or so with a daily boat, a settlement big enough to have somewhere open in April, and a road from the pier to wherever you are sleeping. That is why this section of the site covers eleven islands rather than every entry in the register.
68 routes for 52 inhabited islands
There are fewer routes than there are inhabited islands, because a line rarely serves one place. Line 9807 calls at Lastovo, Korčula, Mljet and Šipan on its way to Dubrovnik. Line 310 collects Unije, Vele Srakane and Susak on the way into Mali Lošinj. Read that way the register is not sixty-eight point-to-point crossings; it is a few dozen chains, each one ending at a mainland port.
The consequence shows up in the tariffs. Because a line serves its ports in sequence, Dubrovnik to Polače and Dubrovnik to Sobra are separate rows of the same fare table, and the sailing that reaches one of them may not reach the other in the month you are travelling. Booking a line is not the same as booking a destination, and the register is the only document that makes the difference visible.
What do you need to work out next?
You have a shortlist. These are what usually break it.
Where to stay
Should I base on an island or the mainland?
Fifty-two islands are inhabited; most have one boat a day out of season.
Getting around
Can I take a hire car to the islands?
Line 602 charges €69.80 off-season for a car over five metres.
When to go
When do the island boats thin out?
17 of the 68 routes carry no public service obligation.
Planning
Can I hop island to island without the mainland?
Only 5 routes in the register run island to island.
Ferry data: Agencija za obalni linijski pomorski promet (ZOLPP), 2026 state coastal line register and per-line timetables. Island counts: Registar otoka, Republic of Croatia.