Most European countries have experienced depopulation in rural and remote places over thelast decade. Eurostat (2021) forecasts that populations are likely to shrink in four out of fiverural regions by 2050. Croatia has for more than half a century recorded an increasing numberof places with a significant decrease in the number of inhabitants. This process is particularlypronounced on many islands. There are almost 200 uninhabited places in Croatia (Dugački,Peternel and Škiljan 2021), of which many are located on the islands.Croatian islands have many difficulties that remind of the general problems of rural andremote regions, which includes fast urbanization, deagrarianization and falling birth rates, butthere are also some specific national causes and explanations. Despite this, demographictrends in Croatia are generally treated as a marginal problem, regardless of the fact that theydirectly and indirectly generate economic and social problems that are difficult to overcome:demographic aging, labour market bottlenecks, problems of caring for single elderly, lack ofsustainability in health and social security systems, and reduced economic growth.In this paper we focus on migration and examine previous studies on why people leave remoteand rural areas. The research questions are: (RQ1) What do we know about why people leaverural and remote regions? (RQ2) Which are the main drivers for leaving rural and remoteregions according to previous research? For this, we consider both the theoreticalperspectives on migration, but also previous empirical findings. We have found that there aremany lessons learned from international experiences that also can be applied on Croatianislands, for example migration due to education and labour market possibilities. However,access to amenities and higher quality of life are advantages for the Croatian islands.