General information: The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed in 1918; in 1929 it was named Yugoslavia. The occupation by Nazi Germany in 1941 aroused the resistance of various partisan detachments, who fought both with the invaders and with each other. A movement led by Marshal TITO (TITO) took full control of the country in 1945. Called communist, his new government successfully followed its own path between the Warsaw Pact and the West for the next four and a half decades. In the early 1990s post-Tite Yugoslavia began to disintegrate into ethnic entities: Slovenia, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia declared independence in 1991; Bosnia and Herzegovina did so in 1992. According to Beautypically, the remaining republics of Serbia and Montenegro proclaimed the “Federal Republic of Yugoslavia” in 1992, and Serbia, led by President Slobodan MILOSEVIC, made military efforts to unite Serbs living in neighboring republics into a “Greater Serbia”. All these efforts were unsuccessful. In 1999, the mass expulsion of Albanians living in the Autonomous Republic of Kosovo by Serbs provoked international reactions, including the bombing of Serbia and the deployment of NATO and Russian peacekeepers to Kosovo. Apparent attempts at fraud in the October 2000 presidential election sparked massive demonstrations and strikes across the country, forcing the authorities to recognize the victory of Vojislav KOSTUNICA, who replaced Milosevic.
Geography
Location: southeastern Europe, on the Adriatic coast, between Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Geographical coordinates: 44° 00′ N. latitude, 21° 00’E
Reference map: Europe.
Area: total: 102,350 km2; land surface area: 102,136 km2; water surface area: 214 km2
Comparative area: slightly smaller than Kentucky.
Land borders: total: 2,246 km; with neighboring countries: with Albania 287 km, with Bosnia and Herzegovina 527 km, with Bulgaria 318 km, with Croatia (in the north) 241 km, with Croatia (in the south) 25 km, with Hungary 151 km, with the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia 221 km, with Romania 476 km.
Coastline: 199 km.
Maritime claims: no data.
Climate: in the north, the climate is continental (cold winters and hot, humid summers with an even distribution of precipitation); in the center of the country the climate is continental and Mediterranean in the south, on the Adriatic coast, hot dry summers and autumns and relatively cold winters with heavy snowfalls far from the sea.
Relief: extremely diverse; rich fertile plains in the north; in the east, limestone chains and basins; in the southeast old mountains and hills; in the southwest, steep coasts without islands off the coast.
Maximum and minimum heights: lowest point: Adriatic Sea 0 m; highest point: Mount Daravisha 2,656 m
Natural resources: oil, gas, coal, antimony, copper, lead, zinc, nickel, gold, pyrite, chromium, hydropower, arable land.
Land use: arable land: 40%; cultivated land: 0%; pastures: 20.7%; forests and plantations: 17.3%; others: 22% (1998 est.).
Irrigated land: no data.
Natural hazards: destructive earthquakes.
Current environmental problems: pollution of coastal waters by agricultural runoff, especially in tourist areas such as Kotor; air pollution in Belgrade and other industrial centers; water pollution from industrial effluents in the Sava River, which flows into the Danube.
International agreements on environmental protection: member: Air Pollution, Climate Change, Hazardous Waste, Law of the Sea, Marine Pollution, Marine Life Conservation, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Wetlands; signed but not ratified: Biodiversity.
Geography note: controls one of the main land routes from Western Europe to Turkey and the Middle East; strategic position on the Adriatic coast.
Population
Population: 10,677,290; note: all population data may contain significant errors due to changes caused by war and ethnic cleansing (July 2001 est.).
Age structure: under 14: 19.8% (male 1,095,905; female 1,024,123); 15 to 64 years old: 65.3% (male 3,415,728; female 3,553,343); over 65: 14.9% (male 681,559; female 906,632) (2001 est.).
Population growth: -0.27% (2001 est.).
Birth rate: 12.61 newborns / 1000 people.
Mortality: 10.54 deaths / 1000 people.
Migration: -4.71 checks/1,000 people
Sex ratio: at birth: 1.08 male/female; under 15: 1.08 male/female; 15 to 64 years old: 0.96 male/female; over 65: 0.76 male/female; for the general population: 0.95 male/female (2001 est.);
Child mortality: 17.42 deaths/1000 births (2001 est.).
Life expectancy: for the general population: 73.5 years; men: 70.57 years; women: 76.67 years (2001 est.).
General birth rate: 1.75 children/wives. (2001 est.).
Proportion of the adult population infected with HIV: no data available.
Number of people infected with HIV: no data.
Mortality due to AIDS: no data available.
Nationality: noun: Serb; Montenegrin; adjective: Serbian; Montenegrin.
Ethnic groups: Serbs 62.6%, Albanians 16.5%, Montenegrins 5%, Yugoslavs 3.4%, Hungarians 3.3%, others 9.2% (1991).
Believers: Orthodox 65%, Muslim 19%, Catholic 4%, Protestant 1%, other 11%.
Language(s): Serbian 95%, Albanian 5%.
Literacy: definition: persons aged 15 and over who can read and write; for the general population: 93%; men: 97.2%; women: 88.9% (1991).
