Macedonia is a land-locked country located in southeastern Europe. It is bordered by Kosovo and Serbia to the north, Bulgaria to the east, Greece to the south, and Albania to the west. Its capital, Skopje, is located in the north central part of the country on the Vardar River. The country is a parliamentary democracy with the president being elected to a five-year term (with eligibility for a second term) by popular vote. The country’s currency is the Macedonian denar. Macedonia is slightly larger in size than Vermont.
The July 2008 estimate of the population is 2,061,315. Macedonia has a small population growth rate of .26 percent. The current life expectancy is 74.45 years with women outliving men by over five years.
Macedonian is the major language of the country spoken by over 66 percent of the populace. Albanian is in second place with over 25 percent of the populace speaking it. Macedonia has a 96.1 percent literacy rate of people over the age of 15 with four percent more men being literate than women. The majority religion (64.7 percent) is Macedonian Orthodox; Muslim falls second with 33.3 percent of the populace.
Unlike Kosovo, Macedonia gained its independence peacefully from the Republic of Yugoslavia in 1991. However, due to Greece’s continuing objection to what they perceive to be a Hellenic name, formal recognition of the country’s name was delayed. It was not until 2004 that the United States began referring to the country by the name “Republic of Macedonia” instead of the stop-gap “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” which was used during the dispute. Greece is still in dispute regarding the country being named Macedonia.
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