The thesis thema deals with the historical and geographical development of the Elaphiti islands, the southernmost inhabited islands in Croatia. Geographical area features were analyzed in the first part of the paper, as well as demographic characteristics. The second part examines historical and geographical development of the Elaphiti in different stages, and also analyzes various factors in their development. Basically, the whole historical development of these islands took place under the influence of strong administrative and cultural center - the city of Dubrovnik. The period of the Dubrovnik Republic left the strongest influences on this area, whose consequences can be seen nowadays. Negligence and poor planning of all government after the fall of the Republic led to the decline and depopulation of the islands, which is marked by the most recent period. Because of the basic demographic and economic indicators, projections of future demographic and economic development of the Elaphiti are not favorable. There are some measures which have been taken in recent years and other planed to be done in next few years that could slow down negative processes (primarily related to transport connections with mainland, the construction of municipal infrastructure and development of tourism as the dominant economic activity).