Slavonia and Baranja or Eastern Croatia is a physical-geographical
part of the Pannonian Basin and it is divided administratively into 5
counties: Virovitica-Podravina, Požega-Slavonia, Slavonski Brod-Posavina,
Osijek-Baranja and Vukovar-Sirmium (which make nearly 20% of the state).
Regarding functional organization, Slavonia and Baranja is a part of Osijek
nodal region but with interrelated influences of other regional centres like
Slavonski Brod, Vinkovci, Vukovar, Ðakovo and Požega. Analysis of this region
consisting of 22 cities and 104 municipalities with 805,998 people (according to
Census 2011) will be conducted according to several economic-geographic indicators:
foreign trade exchange, number of employed people per 100 inhabitants,
number of unemployed people per 100 inhabitants, economic structure of population
as well as the share of people employed in agriculture and industry as
the most important sectors in the regional economy. Demographic problems will
also be analysed, because the population is one of the most important factors of
economic and social development. The main problems of the analysed region
are depopulation, aging and rural exodus as well as the fact that every city or
municipality, except one, had the decline of population comparing to previous
Census of 2001. These processes are accompanied by spatial population polarization
which has also resulted in economic decline.