Slovenia is a country in Central Europe. Its official name is the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Republika Slovenija). It is bounded on the west by Italy, on the north by Austria, on the northeast by Hungary, on the southeast by Croatia, and on the southwest by the Adriatic Sea. Slovenia is largely hilly and wooded, with a land area of 20,271 square kilometers (7,827 square miles), and a population of 2.1 million people (2,108,708 people). Slovenes make up more than 80% of the country's population. The official language is Slovene, a South Slavic language. With the exception of the Slovene Littoral and the Julian Alps, Slovenia has a primarily continental climate. A sub-mediterranean climate extends to the northern regions of the Dinaric Alps, which run northwest–southeast throughout the nation. In the northwest, the Julian Alps feature an alpine climate. The continental climate becomes more prominent in the northern Pannonian Plain. Ljubljana, the capital and biggest city, sits practically in the center of the nation.
Slovenia has long served as a crossroads for Slavic, Germanic, and Romance languages and civilizations. Its territory was part of several distinct nations, including the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Carolingian Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, the Kingdom of Hungary, the Republic of Venice, Napoleon's First French Empire's Illyrian Provinces, the Austrian Empire, and the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Slovenes co-founded the State of Slovenes, Croats, and Serbs in October 1918. They joined with the Kingdom of Serbia to become the Kingdom of Yugoslavia in December 1918. During WWII, Germany, Italy, and Hungary seized and annexed Slovenia, with a small portion of the country moved to Croatia, a Nazi puppet state at the time. It was reincorporated into Yugoslavia in 1945. Yugoslavia was an Eastern Bloc ally during WWII, but following the Tito–Stalin split in 1948, it never joined the Warsaw Pact, and in 1961, it became one of the founders of the Non-Aligned Movement. Slovenia became the first republic to secede from Yugoslavia and establish itself as an independent sovereign state in June 1991.
Slovenia is a developed nation with a high-income economy that ranks high on the Human Development Index. According to the Gini index, its income inequality is among the lowest in the world. It is a member of the United Nations, European Union, Eurozone, Schengen Area, OSCE, OECD, Council of Europe, and NATO.