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Bosnia is a country in the south east corner of Europe.

Bosnia is officially known as Bosnia and Herzegovina, but often shortened to Bosnia as we will do. It is actually made up of two separate parts. One is is the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the other is the Bosnian Serb Republic called Republika Srpska.

Bosnia has a very small coast along the Adriatic Sea.

The land is a combination of mountains and valleys.

The geographical coordinates for the centre of Bosnia, also known as lines of latitude and longitude, are:-
Latitude - 44 00N
Longitude - 18 00E

The capital of Bosnia is Sarajevo.

There is a elected parliament in each part of Bosnia and Herzegovina and an overall parliament with a president as Head of State. The President changes every eight months between a Bosniak, a Croat and a Serb. The European Union retains some control. It is a very complicated form of government.

In elections everyone over the age of 18 can vote and if you are over 16 and employed you can also vote.

The currency in Bosnia is the convertible mark. Bosnia is not a member of the European Union but it applied for candidate status in 2016.

Bosnian, Croat and Serbian are the official languages.

Check the weather in Sarajevo now.

This is the time in Sarajevo now

The Bosnian flag is blue with an upturned yellow triangle representing, approximately, the shape of the country. The 3 points of the triangle stand for the 3 groups of people; Bosniaks, Croats and Serbs. The stars represent Europe and are shown as continuous by having a half star top and bottom.

Hear the National Anthem



These are the anthem words

The words ×

This is the Bosnian National Anthem called The National Anthem of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was adopted in 1999. It has no words although in 2009 some lyrics were adopted by a parliamntary commission but they have not yet been officially agreed.

If anthem fails to play click here

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The Land
The People
Life and Death
Health, Energy and the Environment
Education and Work
Travel, Communication and the Media

The total land area of Bosnia is 51,187 sq kms which is the 25th largest in Europe.

Bosnia has very few lakes, rivers and canals which total 10 sq kms.

Bosnia has boundaries with 3 countries

• Croatia 956 kms
• Serbia 345 kms
• Montenegro 242 kms

Bosnia has a coastline of 20 kms which is the 28th longest in Europe

The highest point in Bosnia is Maglic at 2,386 metres.

The pie chart below shows how the land is split between agricultural land (crops and pastures), forests and other, which can be towns, villages, desert or frozen waste called tundra.

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The total population of Bosnia is 3.86 million people, making it the 27th largest country in Europe by population.

Of this number 1.98 million are females and 1.88 million are males.

A person from Bosnia is called a Bosnian.

To be a citizen of Bosnia, one of your parents must be a citizen of Bosnia. It is not sufficient to be born in Bosnia. You have to live in Bosnia for 8 years before you can begin to apply for citizenship.

The largest five cities in Bosnia, by population are (all except Banja Luka are in the Bosnia and Herzegovina part of the country):-

• Sarajevo 696,731 people
• Banja Luka 221,106
• Zenica 164,423
• Tuzia 142,486
• Mostar 104,518

For each country we will give you a diagram showing the population density. This is the average number of people for each square kilometre. Each little Owlbut is 1 person and the big yellow rectangle is 1 sq km. After a while you can compare countries and see which ones are the most crowded. Remember it is only an average as more people live closer together in towns and cities than in villages out in the country.



39.8% of the people live in cities or towns.

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The birth rate in Bosnia 8.8 births per 1,000 of population

The death rate in Bosnia 9.9 deaths per 1,000 people.

Check this against the birth rate. If the death rate is higher than the birth rate then the population will decrease unless immigrants arrive in the country.

There are 5.5 deaths of girls under 1 year per 1,000 of births and 5.7 deaths of boys.

The median age for females is 43.1 and for males is 40.2. The median age is that age which divides the population exactly in half so there are the same number of people above the median age as below it.

The average age of a woman when she has her first child is 26.3.

The elderly dependency ratio is 22.5. This is the number of elderly people (ages 65+) per 100 people of working age (ages 15-64).

The potential support ratio is 4.4. This is the number of working-age people (ages 15-64) per one elderly person (ages 65+). As a population ages, the potential support ratio tends to fall, meaning there are fewer potential workers to support the elderly.

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Bosnia spends 9.6% of its total income on health care.

There are 1.93 doctors per 1,000 people.

There are 3.5 hospital beds per 1,000 people.

17.9% of the population are estimated as obese.

99.7% of the urban population and 100% of the rural population have drinking water that is either piped into their home or they have access to a public tap, a protected borehole, well, spring or protected rainwater collection facility.

98.9% of the urban population and 92.0% of the rural population have access to a flushing toilet that is connected to a sewer, a pit latrine (that is a permanent hole in the ground that is looked after) or a composting toilet.

Bosnia releases 17.0 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels in the process of producing and consuming energy. This puts it as the 28th highest in Europe.

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We have no figures for how much Bosnia spends of its total income on education.

Children usually start school at age 6 in Bosnia. Primary education is for nine years until age 15. Secondary education is not compulsory but can last till 18 or 19. This may be followed by further education at a university or college.

Generally the school year consists of 2 terms and starts in the first week of September and finishes in the middle of June. There is usually a 3 week break at the beginning of January.

97.5% of females and 99.5% of males are able to read and write by the age of 15.

62.3% of all people aged between 16 and 24 are not in work. Among females 62.3% are unemployed while with males 43.5% can't find work.

The total number of people available for work in Bosnia is 1.47 million.

They work in the following sectors.

• Agriculture includes farming, fishing and forestry work
• Industry includes mining, manufacturing, construction and energy workers
• Services is everything else

43.2% of the workforce are unemployed.

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There are 7 paved airports in Bosnia, which is the 31st highest number in Europe.


There are 965 kilometres of railways in Bosnia, which is the 32nd longest in Europe.


There are 19,426 kilometres of roads in Bosnia, which means Bosnia is in 28th place for the most kilometres of roads in Europe.

There are 5 major national newspapers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

There are 3.44 million mobile phone users.

20% of the people have a fixed landline.



2.52 million people have access to the internet at home via any device (computer or mobile).

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