Serbia (Serbian: Србија, romanized: Srbija, pronounced [sř̩bija]),[note 1] officially the Republic of

Serbia (Serbian: Република Србија, romanized: Republika Srbija, pronounced [repǔblika sř̩bija]), is a
country situated at the crossroads of Central[6] and Southeast Europe in the southern Pannonian
Plain and the central Balkans.[7] It borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the
northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and
Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest. The country claims a border
with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo.[a] Serbia's population numbers approximately
seven million.[8] Its capital, Belgrade, ranks among the longest inhabited and largest citiеs
in southeastern Europe.[9]
Inhabited since the Paleolithic Age, the territory of modern-day Serbia faced Slavic migrations to
the Southeastern Europe in the 6th century, establishing several regional states in the early Middle
Ages at times recognised as tributaries to the Byzantine, Frankish and Hungarian kingdoms.
The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by the Holy See and Constantinople in 1217, reaching its
territorial apex in 1346 as the relatively short-lived Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th century, the
entirety of modern-day Serbia was annexed by the Ottomans; their rule was at times interrupted by
the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th
century while maintaining a foothold in Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian
Revolution established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which
subsequently expanded its territory.[10] Following disastrous casualties in World War I, and the
subsequent unification of the former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina (and other territories)
with Serbia, the country co-founded Yugoslavia with other South Slavic peoples, which would exist in
various political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. During the breakup of Yugoslavia,
Serbia formed a union with Montenegro,[11]which was peacefully dissolved in 2006.[12] In 2008, the
parliament of the province of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from
the international community.
A unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, Serbia is a member of
the UN, CoE, CERN, OSCE, PfP, BSEC, CEFTA, and is acceding to the WTO.[13] Since 2014, the
country has been negotiating its EU accession with perspective of joining the European Union by
2025.[14] Serbia has suffered from democratic backsliding in recent years, having dropped in ranking
from "Free" to "Partly Free" in the 2019 Freedom House report.[15] Since 2007, Serbia formally
adheres to the policy of military neutrality. The country provides a social security, universal health
care system, and a tuition-free primary and secondary education to its citizens. An upper-middle
income economy[16] with a dominant service sector followed in size by the industrial sector and the
agricultural sector, the country ranks relatively high on the Human Development
Index (66th)[17] and Social Progress Index (45th)[18] as well as the Global Peace Index (54th).[19] Serbia
is one of the European countries with high numbers of registered national minorities, while
the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina is recognizable for its multi-ethnic and multi-cultural identity