Welcome to Slovenia!
Slovenia (Slovenian: Slovenija) is a country on the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe that lies in the eastern Alps at the northern end of the Adriatic Sea. Despite its small size, Slovenia has a surprising variety of terrain, ranging from the beaches of the Mediterranean to the peaks of the Julian Alps, to the rolling hills of the south. Slovenia is also home to some of the finest scenery in the New Europe, the transition from socialism to the European common market economy has gone well and serves as a model for other nations on the same track to follow.
Slovenia (Slovene: Slovenija), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija, abbr.: RS), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, and the Adriatic Sea to the southwest. Slovenia is mostly mountainous and forested, covers 20,271 square kilometers (7,827 sq mi), and has a population of 2.1 million (2.107.007 people), of which 300,000 live in the capital and largest city Ljubljana. Slovenes form the vast majority of the country's population, while Serbs are the largest minority. Slovene, a South Slavic language, is the official language. Slovenia has a predominantly continental climate, with the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps. A sub-mediterranean climate reaches to the northern extensions of the Dinaric Alps that traverse the country in a northwest–southeast direction. The Julian Alps in the northwest have an alpine climate. Continental climate is increasingly more pronounced towards the Pannonian Plain in the Northwest. The nation's capital and largest city Ljubljana is situated at roughly the centre of the country.Slovenia has historically been the crossroads of Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages and cultures. The territory of modern-day Slovenia has been part of many different states: the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Republic of Venice, the Illyrian Provinces of Napoleon's First French Empire, the Austrian Empire and Austria-Hungary Empire. In October 1918, the Slovenes co-founded the State of Slovenes, Croats and Serbs. In December 1918, they merged with the Kingdom of Serbia into the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. During World War II, Germany, Italy, and Hungary occupied and annexed Slovenia, with a tiny area transferred to Croatia, a Nazi puppet state at that time. In 1945, It became a founding member of Yugoslavia. Post-war, Yugoslavia was initially allied with the Eastern Bloc, but after the Tito-Stalin split of 1948, it never subscribed to the Warsaw Pact, and in 1961, it became one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. In June 1991, Slovenia became the first republic that split from Yugoslavia and became an independent sovereign state.Slovenia is a developed country, with an advanced high-income economy, ranking very high in the Human Development Index. Measured by Gini, it has one of the lowest rates of income inequality in the world. It is a member of various international organizations, including the United Nations, the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen Area, the OSCE, the OECD, the Council of Europe, and NATO.