I live in Agram (Zagreb), the capital, and the people around me are not very similar to Dalmatians, though you have to know that many of them come to Agram. You can easily differentiate them from local people from Agram and other parts of Northwestern Croatia for being typical or even pure Dinarid type. Notice how close this area is to Slovenia, as this fact made a great impact on phenotype here.
I'm originally from Eastern part of country, near Esseg (Osijek), the area that had a large Volksdeutsche community before the WWII. Though one can say that this area is close to Bosnia and Serbia, it affects Esseg only because of immigrants. The natives are often fairer, just like in Agram and NW Croatia.
I live in Croatia, so I do have a little more experience with both of them
What I wanted to do with my posts is to say some things that you probably don't and can't see if you don't live here. As I already said, NW Croats have much more in common with Slovenians than Dinarids from coastal region, and same goes to Eastern Croatia. I think that the photos above illustrate it well, just look at the last two man, they are both from the coast. On the other side, the first woman was born in Agram.
I'm not surprised that most people see Croatians as predominantly Dinarid, and this might be one of the reasons - this picture is made upon Croatian immigrant in Germany, Austria etc. What you have to know is that a great part of these people have some Bosnian ancestry, and/or they often come form coastal regions. I think this explains a lot.
Furthermore, I have to say that Bosnians are, hmm, a kind of problem in Croatia. They come in large numbers and people have a lot of prejudices against them, not only because their customs are fairly different, but also because of their appearance (!). So, you see, Croats can easily say if you are Croatian, Bosnian of a mixture, but I can understand it is not that easy for other people. And, to be honest, I'm pretty freaked out by Bosnian "invasion", and I don't feel very comfortable near Dinarids from the coast - and I'm not the only one.
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