Location | Southeastern Europe, north of Greece |
Geographic coordinates | 41 50 N, 22 00 E |
Map references | Europe |
Area | total: 25,713 sq km land: 25,433 sq km water: 280 sq km |
Area - comparative | slightly larger than Vermont |
Land boundaries | total: 838 km border countries (5): Albania 181 km, Bulgaria 162 km, Greece 234 km, Kosovo 160 km, Serbia 101 km |
Coastline | 0 km (landlocked) |
Maritime claims | none (landlocked) |
Climate | warm, dry summers and autumns; relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall |
Terrain | mountainous with deep basins and valleys; three large lakes, each divided by a frontier line; country bisected by the Vardar River |
Elevation extremes | mean elevation: 741 m elevation extremes: 50 m lowest point: Vardar River 2764 highest point: Golem Korab (Maja e Korabit) |
Natural resources | low-grade iron ore, copper, lead, zinc, chromite, manganese, nickel, tungsten, gold, silver, asbestos, gypsum, timber, arable land |
Land use | agricultural land: 44.3% (2011 est.) arable land: 16.4% (2011 est.) / permanent crops: 1.4% (2011 est.) / permanent pasture: 26.5% (2011 est.) forest: 39.8% (2011 est.) other: 15.9% (2011 est.) |
Irrigated land | 1,280 sq km (2012) |
Population distribution | a fairly even distribution throughout most of the country, with urban areas attracting larger and denser populations |
Natural hazards | high seismic risks |
Environment - current issues | air pollution from metallurgical plants; Skopje has severe air pollution problems every winter as a result of industrial emissions, smoke from wood-buring stoves, and exhaust fumes from old cars |
Environment - international agreements | party to: Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements |
Geography - note | landlocked; major transportation corridor from Western and Central Europe to Aegean Sea and Southern Europe to Western Europe |
Source: CIA World Factbook
This page was last updated on March 17, 2019