Country Profiles

Belgrade

Basic Country Data

Serbia is located in Europe, on the Balkan peninsula and in the Pannonian Plain. It is placed at the crossroads between Central, Southern and Eastern Europe. The Danube river (2850 km) flows through the northern third of the country; it is 588 km long and forms the border with Croatia and part of Romania. The Sava river forms the southern border of the Vojvodina province, flows into the Danube in central Belgrade, and bypasses the hills of the Fruska Gora in the west. Sixty kilometers to the northeast of Belgrade, the Tisa river flows into the Danube and ends its 1350 km long journey from Ukraine, and the partially navigable Timiş River (60 km/350 km) flows into the Danube near Pancevo. The Begej river (254 km) flows into Tisa near Titel. All five rivers are navigable, connecting the country with Northern and Western Europe (through the Rhine-Main-Danube Canal-North Sea route), to Eastern Europe (via the Tisa-, Timiş-, Begej- and Danube-Black sea routes) and to Southern Europe (via the Sava river).

The eastern border of the country is determined by the Carpathian Mountain range, which runs through the whole of Central Europe. The Carpathians meet the Balkan Mountains, following the course of Velika Morava, a 500 km long (partially navigable) river. Midzor peak is the highest point in Eastern Serbia at 2156 m. In the southeast, the Balkan Mountains meet the Rhodope Mountains, connecting the country with Greece. The Sar Mountains of Kosovo form the border with Albania, with one of the highest peaks in the region, Djeravica (2656 m). Dinaric Alps of Serbia follow the flow of the Drina river (at 350 km navigable for smaller vessels only) overlooking the Dinaric peaks on the other side of the shore in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The capital of Serbia is Belgrade

Demographics

Population statistics of Serbia (Estimate May 2005):

Serbia (total): 9,396,411
- Vojvodina: 2,116,725
- Central Serbia: 5,479,686
- Kosovo: 1,800,000
Serbia is populated mostly by Serbs. Significant minorities include Albanians (who are a majority in the province of Kosovo), Hungarians, Bosniaks, Roma, Croats, Slovaks, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Romanians, etc. The two provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo, are ethnically and religiously diverse.
According to the last official census data collected in 2002, ethnic composition of Serbia is:
Total: 7,498,001

Serbs: 6,212,844 (82.86%)
Hungarians: 293,172 (3.91%)
Bosniaks: 136,464 (1.82%)
Roma: 107,971 (1.44%)
Yugoslavs: 80,978 (1.08%)
Others (each less than 1%): 666,572 (8.89%)

The census was not conducted in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo, which is under administration by the United Nations. Its population is estimated to 2,100,000 inhabitants, of whom 92% are Albanians, 5.3% Serbs and others form 2.7% of its population.
Refugees and IDPs in Serbia form between 7% and 7.5% of its population. With over half a million refugees (from Croatia mainly, to an extent Bosnia and Herzegovina too and internally displaced personal from Kosovo), Serbia takes the first place in Europe with the largest refugee crisis, as a result of the Yugoslav wars.