The Plitvice Lakes National Park is also in Lika.

Nikola Tesla, the Serbian-American physicist famous for his developments in electrical technology, was born in Lika.

Lika's population is a mix of Catholic Croats and Orthodox Serbs. According to the 1910 Austro-Hugarian census, the Lika-Krbava county had some 204,710 inhabitants, of those, 104,041 Orthodox (51%), 100,620 Roman Catholics, 14 Greek Catholics, 12 Jews, 6 Lutherans and 2 Calvinists.

Following the Croatian declaration of independence in 1991, the Serb majority settlements of eastern Lika joined other Krajina Serbs in the Republic of Serbian Krajina (RSK). Most of the Croatian inhabitants of the region were expelled in a campaign of "ethnic cleansing" that left the region almost entirely Serb-inhabited.

Lika came to international prominence in 1993, after a September 9 attack by the Croatian Army on a Serb-held salient known as the "Medak pocket" in the south of the region. Canadian United Nations forces were caught up in the fighting, which lasted - on and off - for about a week.

In 1995, the Croatian Army overran the region in Operation Storm, destroying the RSK. Some 30,000 Serbs fled, although some have since returned. Many of the Croats expelled in 1991 have now returned. A great deal of damage was done during the fighting, prompting a major post-war reconstruction programme in the region.

The 2001 census data for the Lika-Senj county shows a population that is presently 86.15% Croat and 11.54% Serb.

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