Slovenia

Republic of Slovenia
National name: Republika Slovenija

President: Janez Drnovsek (2002)

Prime Minister: Janez Jansa (2004)

Current government officials

Land area: 7,780 sq mi (20,151 sq km); total area: 7,827 sq mi (20,273 sq km)

Population (2007 est.): 2,009,245 (growth rate: -0.1%); birth rate: 9.0/1000; infant mortality rate: 4.4/1000; life expectancy: 76.5; density per sq mi: 257

Capital and largest city (2003 est.): Ljubljana, 258,000

Other large city: Maribor, 92,400

Monetary units: Slovenian tolar; euro (as of 1/1/07)

Languages: Slovenian 91%, Serbo-Croatian 5% (2002)

Ethnicity/race: Slovene 93.1%, Croat 1.8%, Serb 2%, Bosniak 1.1%, other or unspecified 12% (2001)

Religions: Catholic 58% Orthodox 2%, other Christian 1%, Islam 2%, none 10%

Literacy rate: 100% (2003 est.)

Economic summary: GDP/PPP (2005 est.): $42.26 billion; per capita $21,000. Real growth rate: 4%. Inflation: 2.4%. Unemployment: 9.8%. Arable land: 9%. Agriculture: potatoes, hops, wheat, sugar beets, corn, grapes; cattle, sheep, poultry. Labor force: 920,000; agriculture 6%, industry 40%, services 54% (2002). Industries: ferrous metallurgy and aluminum products, lead and zinc smelting; electronics (including military electronics), trucks, electric power equipment, wood products, textiles, chemicals, machine tools. Natural resources: lignite coal, lead, zinc, mercury, uranium, silver, hydropower, forests. Exports: $18.53 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): manufactured goods, machinery and transport equipment, chemicals, food. Imports: $19.62 billion f.o.b. (2005 est.): machinery and transport equipment, manufactured goods, chemicals, fuels and lubricants, food. Major trading partners: Germany, Italy, Austria, France, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina (2004).

Communications: Telephones: main lines in use: 722,000 (1997); mobile cellular: 1 million (2000). Radio broadcast stations: AM 17, FM 160, shortwave 0 (1998). Radios: 805,000 (1997). Television broadcast stations: 48 (2001). Televisions: 710,000 (1997). Internet Service Providers (ISPs): 11 (2000). Internet users: 600,000 (2001).

Transportation: Railways: total: 1,201 km (2002). Highways: total: 20,177 km; paved: 20,157 km (including 427 km of expressways); unpaved: 20 km 2000). Waterways: n.a. Ports and harbors: Izola, Koper, Piran. Airports: 16 (2002).

International disputes: Sparliamentarians are far from ratifying the Croatia-Slovenia land and maritime boundary agreement, which would have ceded most of Piran Bay and maritime access to Slovenia and several villages to Croatia.

Geography
Slovenia occupies an area about the size of the state of Massachusetts. It is largely a mountainous republic and almost half of the land is forested, with hilly plains spread across the central and eastern regions. Mount Triglav, the highest peak, rises to 9,393 ft (2,864 m).

Government
Parliamentary democratic republic.

History
Slovenia was originally settled by Illyrian and Celtic peoples. It became part of the Roman Empire in the first century B.C.

The Slovenes were a south Slavic group that settled in the region in the 6th century A.D. During the 7th century, the Slavs established the state of Samu, which owed its allegiance to the Avars, who dominated the Hungarian plain until Charlemagne defeated them in the late 8th century.

When the Hungarians were defeated by the Turks in 1526, Hungary accepted Austrian Hapsburg rule in order to escape Turkish domination; the Hapsburg monarchy was the first to include all of the Slovene regions. Thus, Slovenia and Croatia became part of the Austro-Hungarian kingdom when the dual monarchy was established in 1867. Like Croatia and unlike the other Balkan states, it is primarily Roman Catholic.

Following the defeat and collapse of Austria-Hungary in World War I, Slovenia declared its independence. It formally joined with Montenegro, Serbia, and Croatia on Dec. 4, 1918, to form the new nation called the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The name was later changed to Yugoslavia in 1929.

During World War II, Germany occupied Yugoslavia, and Slovenia was divided among Germany, Italy, and Hungary. For the duration of the war many Slovenes fought a guerrilla war against the Nazis under the leadership of the Croatian-born Communist resistance leader, Marshal Tito. After the final defeat of the Axis powers in 1945, Slovenia was again made into a republic of the newly established Communist nation of Yugoslavia.

In the 1980s, Slovenia agitated for greater autonomy and occasionally threatened to secede. It introduced a multiparty system and in 1990 elected a non-Communist government. Slovenia declared its independence from Yugoslavia on June 25, 1991. The Serbian-dominated Yugoslavian army tried to keep Slovenia in line and some brief fighting took place, but the army then withdrew its forces. Unlike Croatia and Bosnia, Slovenia was able to sever itself from Yugoslavia with relatively little violence. With recognition of its independence granted by the European Community in 1992, the country began realigning its economy and society toward western Europe. Slovenia joined the EU and NATO in 2004.

In a surprise upset, the center-right Slovenian Democrats (SDS) leader Janez Jansa won in Oct. 2004 elections. Prime Minister Anton Rop, of the Liberal Democratic Party (LDS), conceded defeat. LDS had been in power for most of the previous 12 years. Slovenia will change its currency to the euro on Jan. 1, 2007.