The Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, on the Balkan Peninsula in central Europe, is bounded on the north, west, and south by Croatia, on the southwest by the Adriatic Sea, and on the east by Serbia and Montenegro. It was a constituent republic of Yugoslavia from 1946 to 1991 but the country declared its independence in 1992.
Comparatively, Bosnia and Herzegovina is slightly smaller than the state of West Virginia, with a total area of 51,129 square kilom (19,741 sq mi).
Its population was estimated as 4,552,198 with an annual growth of 1.0 percent in 2007. Sarajevo which comes from a Turkish word meaning “square before the palace,” is the capital and largest city.
The people are sharply divided into three ethnic communities—the Bosnians who are mostly Muslim in religion, the Serbians who are mostly Serbian Orthodox, and the Croatians who are mostly Roman Catholics. The nation's official language is Serbo-Croatian (often called Bosnian).
The country has a federal government and two administrative divisions: the Bosniak/Croat-led Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Bosnian Serb-led Serb Republic. The Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBH) incorporates the 51 percent of the country with a Bosnian Muslim and Bosnian Croat majority, while the Republika Srpska (RS) occupies the 49 percent of the country with a Bosnian Serb majority.
The unit of currency is convertible marka.
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