The modern Croatian economy, which emerged in the last three decades, went through an extremely turbulent period, including the Homeland War, and was confronted with a number of new processes, phenomena and tendencies, which were completely unknown historically. During this emergence and development, an attempt was made to restore the old system inherited from the period of socialism and to create a new market economy. This process is commonly referred to as transition. There were no historical models for its implementation, nor were there clear technical instructions on what, how and in what way it should be carried out. Nor was there any scientific evidence about the best way to go about it. There was only a general, principled goal and the mass desire of Croatian citizens, accompanied by enormous enthusiasm, to achieve a general improvement, especially an increase in the standard of living and quality of life. The aim of this paper is to examine the meaning and indicators of competitiveness of the economy, analyze the current situation from the perspective of competitiveness of the Croatian economy, highlight the main problems and possible opportunities, and present guidelines for their improvement. To present the competitiveness of the Republic of Croatia at the EU level and to compare the competitiveness at the regional level as well as on the territory of the Republic of Croatia.