General

The Slovak Republic is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It was formed on 1 January 1993 by the division of Czechoslovakia. The constitution of the Slovak Republic was signed on 3 September 1992 in the Knights' Hall of Bratislava Castle. Slovakia borders the Czech Republic, Austria, Hungary, Ukraine and Poland. Since 1 May 2004, Slovakia has been a member of the European Union, since 21 December 2007 a member of the Schengen Area, and since 1 January 2009 a member of the Eurozone.

Basic information

Name of the country in Slovak Slovenská republika (long form), Slovensko (short form)
Capital city Bratislava
Largest city Bratislava (by population)
Official language Slovak
Form of government Republic
Political system Parliamentary democracy
Date of establishment of Republic 1 January 1993
President Zuzana Čaputová
Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini
Area 49 035 km2
Population 5,429,763 (as of 30 June 2010)
Population density 109/km2
Ethnic structure of population Slovak (85.8 %), Hungarian (9.7 %), Romany (1.7 %), Czech (0.8 %), Ruthenian, Ukrainian, Russian, German, Polish and other nationalities (2 %)
Religion Roman Catholic (68.9 %), Protestant (6.9 %), Greek Catholic (4.1 %), Reformed Christian (2 %), smaller churches (1.95%), unregistered churches (0.14%), without affiliation (13.0%), not identified (3%)
Currency euro (€, EUR), until 31 December 2008 the Slovak koruna (Sk, SKK)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
Summer time CEST (UTC+2)
International code SVK / SK
International license plate SK
Internet domain .sk, .eu (shared with other EU members)
Dialling code 421
Membership in international organisations EU, NATO, UN, UNESCO, OECD, OSCE, CERN, WHO, INTERPOL, etc.

National symbols

National flag
National emblem
State seal

National anthem

Nad Tatrou sa blýska

Nad Tatrou sa blýska,
hromy divo bijú.
Zastavme ich, bratia,
veď sa ony stratia,
Slováci ožijú.

To Slovensko naše
posiaľ tvrdo spalo.
Ale blesky hromu
vzbudzujú ho k tomu,
aby sa prebralo.

Translations of the Slovak national anthem to other languages can be found on Wikipedia, in the different language versions of the article Nad Tatrou sa blýska).

Musical notation and audio files (sung and instrumental versions) can be found here.

Administrative divisions

Eight regions that are also larger territorial units:

  1. Bratislava region
  2. Trnava region
  3. Nitra region
  4. Trenčín region
  5. Žilina region
  6. Banská Bystrica region
  7. Prešov region
  8. Košice region
  • 79 districts
  • 138 cities
  • 2933 villages.

Source: http://sk.wikipedia.org, http://www.government.gov.sk.