Albania, one of Europe's smallest countries, is bounded on the north by Montenegro and Serbia, on the east by the Republic of Macedonia, and on the southeast by Greece. It is 11,100 square miles (28,748 square kilometers) in size, which is roughly the size of the state of Massachusetts. Its capital and largest city is Tiranë and in 2007 the estimated population was 3,600,523.
The official language is Albanian and the major religions are Islam, Orthodox Christianity and Roman Catholicism. Greeks are the country's largest ethnic minority.
The Albanians long suffered under foreign domination. For nearly 500 years Albania was a part of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, before winning its independence in 1912. In the early 1990's, Albanians freed themselves from a Communist system of government that had long ruled the country and became a republic with a unicameral legislature (the People's Assembly) elected by popular vote every four years.
The unit of currency is the Lek.
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