Geography
- Area: 49,035 km², the Slovak Republic is situated in Central Europe, sharing borders with Austria, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ukraine and Hungary.
- Official name: Slovak Republic
- Capital: Bratislava (431,061 inhabitants)
- Date of establishment: 1 January 1993 (after the split up of the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic).
- Political system: parliamentary democracy. Constitution guarantees equal rights for all citizens regardless of sex, race, colour, language, faith, religion, political affiliation or conviction, national or social origin, nationality or ethnic origin, property, birth or any other status. The President is the Head of State.
- Administrative organisation: 8 higher territorial units, 8 regions, 79 districts, 2,933 municipalities.
- Official language: Slovak
- Currency: euro (since 1 January 2009); 1 euro (1 €) = 100 cents (100 c), banknotes issued in 500 €, 200 €, 100 €, 50 €, 20 €, 10 € and 5 € denominations; coins in 2 € and 1 € and 50 c, 20 c, 10 c, 5 c, 2 c and 1 c denominations.
- Membership in international organisations: EU (from 1 May 2004), NATO (from 29 March 2004), UN, OECD, OSCE, WHO, INTERPOL, etc.
Population
5.4 million (of which 51.5 % are female)
- Ethnic mix of population: Slovaks (85.8 %), Hungarians (9.7 %), Roma (1.7 %), Czechs (0.8 %), Ruthenians (0.4 %), Ukrainians (0.2 %), Germans (0.1 %), others (0.2 %), unknown (1.1 %).
- Population and their religions: Roman Catholic (68.9 %), Evangelical Lutheran of Augsburg Confession (6.9 %), Greek Catholic (4.1 %), Reformed Christian (2.0 %), Orthodox (0.9 %), Jews (0.04 %), others (4.1 %), without denomination (13.0 %).
Weather
- Weather: continental climate with 4 seasons (spring, summer, autumn, winter). Summers are hot; winters are cold, cloudy and humid. The average winter daily temperature is -2 °C, but can plummet to -15 °C. The average daily, temperature in summer is 21 °C, but can be as warm as over 30 °C. The coldest month is January; the hottest month is July.
- Time: Slovakia is in the Central European Time Zone (CET) which is 1 hour ahead of the Greenwich Mean Time (GMT +1) with summer time 2 hours ahead of GMT (GMT +2). Time changes into Summer time in last Sunday in March and in last Sunday in October it changes back to CET or winter time.
