Entrepreneurship can be defined as an economic activity conducted by an individual or a group that invest their funds and take on risks in order to perform entrepreneurial ventures where the main goal is making profit. Entrepreneurship is vital to national economies since there is no economic growth without the development of entrepreneurship, which has an effect on the gross domestic product, employment in the country and new jobs. The key person is the entrepreneur, somebody who will recognise a business opportunity, invest their funds and effort in order to make an idea happen. The state depends on such individuals and should enable them an easy realisation of their ideas and possibly ensure some grants. Entrepreneurship in Croatia has had a long history, but the country went through so many changes and turmoil in the past, that expectations were big once the country gained sovereignty. The transition and privatisation that followed have not fulfilled those expectations. Croatians today perform a minimum of entrepreneurial activities compared to other countries in transition. The biggest obstacles to the development of entrepreneurship today are bureaucracy, lack of support by the state, taxes and unclear regulations. Numerous institutions study the problems of entrepreneurial development. Since 2002 Croatia has participated in the world’s largest research on entrepreneurial activities – GEM. What makes Croatia a (non)entrepreneurial country? is the title of a monograph from 2017 that presents the results. Croatia is according to almost all the indicators followed by the GEM research positioned in the last fifth of countries; often even the last country. Croatia is in the peak according to only two indicators: according to intentions criteria on starting a business venture it is in the first place and according to entrepreneurial activity of employees it is in the sixth place. It is considered that the government interventions when it comes to improving the regulatory framework are not insufficient; the cooperation between the business and research sector still needs to be increased and stimulated by government programmes, and there has been no reform yet, that would implement learning about entrepreneurial activities and spirit in schools. The last part of the thesis compares the results of the GEM research from 2017 for Croatia and for our neighbour country Slovenia. The Slovenian economy has recovered successfully from the crisis and has been recording steady growth.