The Dubrovnik-Neretva County is the southernmost Croatian county, located in south Dalmatia. The county seat is Dubrovnik and other large towns are Korčula, Metković, Opuzen and Ploče. The Municipality of Neum, which belongs to neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina, divides the county in two parts. The southern part of the county consists of Dubrovnik and the surrounding area, including the Pelješac peninsula, and the islands of Korčula, Lastovo, Mljet, Šipan, Lopud and Koločep. The northern part of the county includes the Neretva Delta, the Baćina lakes north of Ploče, and a swath of hinterland near the southernmost slopes of Biokovo and around the hill of Rujnica. Although the 9 kilometres-long stretch of coast belonging to Neum effectively makes the southern part of the county an exclave it is still connected with the rest of the country via territorial waters. Road trafficgoing to and from Dubrovnik through Neum is usually less subject to customs controls in order to reduce the traffic congestion. The road connecting Dubrovnik to the rest of the country via Neum has one lane per direction and bus lines passing through Neum often make rest stops there so that passengers can take advantage of lower Bosnian taxes and purchase tobacco and alcoholic beverages as they tend to be cheaper there. The Croatian and Bosnian governments are planning to build an expressway that would connect Dubrovnik through the Neum municipality and would not require any border control. The regional government of the county is also planning to build a sea bridge at Komarna that would directly connect the southern tip of the northern part of the county to the Pelješac peninsula, thereby linking the southern part of the county as well. The northern part of the Mljet island is a national park. The Lastovo archipelago is a designated nature park. The southernmost tip of the county is the demilitarized Prevlaka peninsula at the border with Montenegro. It is the only Croatian county that borders Montenegro.
Administrative division
On the local level, the Dubrovnik–Neretva county is further subdivided into 5 cities and 17 municipalities :
As of the 2011 census, the county had 122,568 residents. The population density is 69 people per km2. Ethnic Croats form the majority with 94.4% of the population, followed by Serbs at 1.7%.
