Bosnia and Herzegovina 🇧🇦

Filed under Europe and more precisely Southeast Europe, Bosnia and Herzegovina is a sovereign state. Unlike most entries, its formal name adds nothing to the short one. Sarajevo is the capital.

By land area it covers 51,209 km², which ranks it 130th of the 250 countries and territories in this dataset — just behind Croatia and just ahead of Costa Rica. That makes it around a quarter larger than Denmark.

Around 3.2 million people live there, placing it 136th of 250 by population — between Puerto Rico above it and Armenia below. Among the 9 entries in Southeast Europe it ranks 5th by area and 5th by population.

Plotted on a globe it falls at 44.0° north, 18.0° east, which puts it in the northern hemisphere, roughly 4,898 km from the equator, in what geographers would call temperate latitudes.

Follow that same latitude east or west and you reach Mongolia — places that share its distance from the equator but little else.

Its land neighbours number 3: Croatia, Montenegro and Serbia. The largest of them by area is Serbia, which is also the most populous. Together those neighbours hold about 11.1 million people.

It has both a coastline and land borders, which is the most common arrangement of all.

Spread across 51,209 km², that works out at about 62 people per square kilometre, which makes it less crowded than the typical entry on this list. Half the entries in this dataset fall below roughly 90 per square kilometre.

Someone from Bosnia and Herzegovina is a Bosnian, Herzegovinian.

3 languages carry official status: Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian. Bosnian is listed for no other entry in this dataset, which makes it effectively unique to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Inside Europe it places 28th of 53 by population, and it accounts for 6.9% of everyone living in Southeast Europe.

The Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark (BAM) is used only in Bosnia and Herzegovina among the 250 entries on this site. Its own currency is one of the clearest markers of an economy that sets its own monetary policy rather than importing somebody else's.

Language reaches wider still. Serbian is listed for 3 entries here, Bosnia and Herzegovina among them, so a visitor who speaks it can be understood across a large part of the map. Shared language tends to outlive the empires, trade routes and migrations that spread it, which is why the linguistic map and the political one rarely line up.

Zoom in from the world to Southeast Europe and Bosnia and Herzegovina sits 5th of 9 by population and 5th by area. Its immediate company in that ordering is Croatia just above and Albania just below, which is a more honest comparison set than a global league table.

Romania is the largest of the group by population, and every entry in Southeast Europe has its own page here if you want to work through the whole neighbourhood rather than one country at a time.

• 🇭🇷 Croatia
• 🇦🇱 Albania
• 🇷🇴 Romania

Put next to every other entry on this site, Bosnia and Herzegovina ranks 130th of 250 by area and 136th by population. That works out at 0.034% of the combined land area of all 250 entries and 0.039% of their combined population. Those denominators matter: this list includes territories and dependencies as well as UN member states, so a rank here is not the same as a rank among sovereign countries.

For a sense of scale, the entries immediately either side of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the size ordering are Croatia at 56,594 km² and Costa Rica at 51,100 km², against Bosnia and Herzegovina's 51,209 km². If you can already picture one of those, you can picture this one.

Density tells a different story from either raw figure. Bosnia and Herzegovina averages 62 people per square kilometre of total area, which makes it middling in density — 154th of the 248 entries that have both a population and a measured area. Total area includes inland water, so the true figure for habitable land is higher than this.

Money there is the Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark (KM, BAM). No other entry in this dataset uses it, so the currency is specific to Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Websites there use the .ba domain. The international dialling code is +387. Standard country codes: ba and BIH.

If a quiz asks for the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the answer is Sarajevo.

Bosnia and Herzegovina is one of the 193 UN member states in this dataset. The other 57 entries are territories, dependencies or observers, which is why totals on this site run to 250 rather than the familiar 195.