Slovakia

Capital: Bratislava Population: 5,445,324 Official Languages: Slovak Time Zone: +1 / Summer +2 Dialing Code: +421

Government: Parliamentary republic Area: 49,035 km2 largest city: Bratislava Currency : Euro ISO 3166 code: SK

Basic Info

The Slovak Republic, is a landlocked state in Central Europe. It has a population of over five million and an area of about 49,000 square kilometres (19,000 sq mi). Slovakia is bordered by the Czech Republic and Austria to the west, Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east and Hungary to the south. The largest city is the capital, Bratislava, and the second largest is Košice. Slovakia is a member state of the European Union, NATO, United Nations, OECD and WTO among others. The official language is Slovak, a member of the Slavic language family.

Geography

Slovakia lies between latitudes 47° and 50° N, and longitudes 16° and 23° E. The Slovak landscape is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains extending across most of the northern half of the country. Amongst these mountain ranges are the high peaks of the Fatra-Tatra Area (including Tatra mountains, Greater Fatra and Lesser Fatra), Slovak Ore Mountains, Slovak Central Mountains or Beskids. The largest lowland is the fertile Danubian Lowland in the southwest, followed by the Eastern Slovak Lowland in the southeast.

Climate

The Slovak climate lies between the temperate and continental climate zones with relatively warm summers and cold, cloudy and humid winters. There are almost no extremes below minimal -20°C (-4°F) or above maximal +37°C (+99°F). The weather differs from the mountainous North to the plain South.

The warmest region is Bratislava and Southern Slovakia where the temperatures may rise up to +30°C in summer, occasionally to 35-37°C. During night, the temperatures rise up to 20°C. The daily temperatures in winter average in the range of -5°C up to +10°C. During night it may be freezing, but usually not below -10°C.

Summer in Northern Slovakia is usually mild with temperatures around +25°C (less in the mountains). Winters are colder in the mountains, where the snow usually lasts until March or even April and the night temperatures go down to -20°C and sometimes even deeper. Although it may get quite windy, tornadoes and hurricanes do not occur.

Religion

The Slovak constitution guarantees freedom of religion. In 2011, 62.0% of Slovaks identified themselves as Roman Catholics, 5.9% as Protestants, 3.8% as Greek Catholics, 0.9% as Orthodox, 13.4% identified themselves as atheists and 10.6% did not answer the question about their belief. Generally about one third of church members regularly attend church services. The pre–World War II population of the country included an estimated 90,000 Jews (1.6% of the population). After the genocidal policies of the Nazi era, only about 2,300 Jews remain today (0.04% of the population).

Administrative divisions

As for administrative division, Slovakia is subdivided into 8 krajov (singular – kraj, usually translated as "region"), each of which is named after its principal city. Regions have enjoyed a certain degree of autonomy since 2002. Their self-governing bodies are referred to as Self-governing (or autonomous) Regions (sg. samosprávny kraj, pl. samosprávne kraje) or Upper-Tier Territorial Units (sg. vyšší územný celok, pl. vyššie územné celky, abbr. VÚC).

See Also

Site Search

News

Random Articals

Weather

Join Our Newsletter

Send This Page to Friend

To Email this page to a friend

Online Contact

Go back to the previous page

Report
Missing / Incorrect
Information