The separation of the six republics of the old Socialist Republic of Yugoslavia in the early 1990s led to the creation of Serbia and Montenegro. In 2006, Serbia became a sovereign state after Montenegro declared independence. Serbia’s capital, Belgrade, ranks among the largest and oldest citiеs in southeastern Europe.
Serbia has a mixed climate owing to its varied geographical terrain of mountainous regions and low lying plains. In the north, the climate is more continental, with cold winters, and hot, humid summers along with well-distributed rainfall patterns. In the south, summers and autumns are drier, and winters are relatively cold, with heavy inland snowfall in the mountains.
Ethnic Serbs form the vast majority of its population, followed by Hungarians, Roma and Bosniaks at 3% or less, each. The main language spoken is Serbian, and although it is formally a secular state, the vast majority of its population identifies as Orthodox Christian.