Background Injuries are the leading cause of death among children in Croatia. In recent decades, the work on monitoring and prevention of injuries has intensified, which led to a reduction of child mortality caused by injuries.

Methods The data used in the research was collected from the routine mortality and morbidity statistics, the database of the World Health Organisation: European Detailed Mortality Database (DMDB), as well as from the results of the international project TACTICS (Tools to Address Childhood Trauma, Injury and Children’s Safety).

Results In Croatia, in the last ten-year period from 2005 to 2014 has been noted a trend of reducing the mortality rates from total number of injuries (V01-Y98) among children aged 0–19. The highest age-specific death rate from injuries in children in the mentioned period was 14.6/100.000 (2005), and the lowest 7.1/100.000 (2014), which represents almost double reduction in mortality. The reason for this is primarily the trend of reducing the mortality rate due to traffic accidents (V01-V99) in children (8.6/100.000 (2005); 2.6/100.000 (2014)). The leading external causes of death from injury in the observed period were: traffic accidents, suicide, drowning, followed by poisoning and suffocation. According to the European DMDB database, Croatia has been positioned around the middle of the European scale with the standardised mortality rate from injury (0–19 years) 8.8/100 000 (2012). According to the research carried out in the framework of the international project TACTICS, it was noted that Croatia has a medium satisfactory child safety level in the area of unintentional child injury prevention. In the violence prevention area Croatia belongs to the European countries with progressive politics.

Conclusions Although in the last few decades Croatia perceives a trend of reducing mortality from child injuries, further efforts in the area of monitoring, treatment and prevention of child injuries are needed.