43 Interesting Facts About Serbia

Last updated on January 12th, 2022

21. Earthquakes are quite common in Serbia, and the country gets devastated with these natural disasters multiple times a year. See more insights about earthquakes

22. Sex Ratio: There are 0.95 males for every female in Serbia.

23. The country spends 10.6% and 4.8% of its GDP on health-related expenditures and education, respectively.

24. There are 122 municipalities in Serbia.

Flag of Serbia

Flag of Serbia
Flag of Serbia. Image credit – CIA

25. There are 130 mobile and 40 landline connections for every 100 people. 

26. In Serbia, the internet is used by almost 50% of the population.

27. For 500 years Serbia was ruled by the Ottoman Empire (Turks).

28. The majority of Serbian last names end with ‘ic.’

29. Serbia is ahead of the Swiss in clock making. They started doing this almost 600 years before the Swiss took over the industry heavily and made their name worldwide.

30. Serbia became a member of the UNESCO Executive Board recently (2015).

31. According to statistics, Serbians are known to be the most hospitable people in the world. They believe that they won’t gain any favor from the gods if they are not hospitable to their guests.

32. Do you love raspberries? Serbia is the largest exporter of raspberries in the world. It contributes 30% of all raspberries to the international market.

33. Serbians love the game of football.

34. Ivo Andric is the only Nobel Prize winner from Serbia. He won the esteemed award for literature in 1961.

35. Nikola Tesla, regarded as one of the most important inventors in history, was born on July 10, 1856 in Serbia (now Croatia). He died as a Serbian American (the name for United States of America citizens of Serb ethnic ancestry.) Tesla created great inventions and made discoveries in the disciplines of electric current and magnetism. His name is also used in the unit of magnetic induction (T). Read more about Nikola Tesla here.

Nikola Tesla of Serbia
Nikola Tesla of Serbia

36. Some of the other renowned scientists from Serbia, apart from Nikola Tesla, include Milutin Milanković (mathematician, astronomer, climatologist, geophysicist, civil engineer), Mihajlo I. Pupin (physicist and physical chemist), Josif Pančić (botanist, doctor, famous lecturer), Mihailo Petrović Alas (mathematician and inventor), Mileva Marić (physicist) and Vuk Stefanović Karadžić (philologist and linguist). In spite of its turbulent history, the country has produced enormous talent in the field of science.

37. Another famous person from Serbia from the field of sports is Novak Djokovic. He is a professional tennis player who holds the number-one ATP ranking at the time of this writing. He has won 12 Grand Slam singles titles to this day. You can visit his website here.

38. Belgrade, the capital of Serbia, has been ranked the highest among party places in the world by Lonely Planet. Interested in Belgrade? Check out the Lonely Planet Belgrade travel page.

39. Some of the beautiful and talented women from the country include: Ana Ivanovic – tennis player, Nina Senicar – model, Manja Babovic – model, Stanija Dobrojevic – model, Natasa Vojnovic – model, Ana Mirkovic – model, Nina Senicar – model and Danijela Dimitrovksa – model.

40. A fifth of all Roman rulers were born in Serbia between the 3rd and 4th centuries.

41. A donation of $5.4 million to help revive the economy of the Bosnian town of Srebrenica – site of a 1995 Massacre – was made recently by the Serbian government. This town had seen a massacre of 8000 Muslims by Serbians almost 20 years ago. And the government wants to make up for the loss of brotherhood by uplifting the town’s condition and of those who still inhabit the place.

42. Serbia installed its first-ever wind power house at the ‘Kula wind farm.’ The country is aiming for 500 MW of wind capacity by 2020.

43. Serbian people are very brave, which they proved back in 1918. At that time, their army broke the Thessaloniki front in a mere 18 days. Other armies, including the British, Italian, Greek and French, also attempted the task, but were not able to do it, even in months.

Serbia – country at a glance

Independence 5 June 2006 (from the State Union of Serbia and Montenegro)
Capital CityBelgrade
Largest CityBelgrade
Total area77,474 sq km
Population6,739,471 (2022 est.)
DemonymSerbian
Official LanguageSerbian
National anthem"Boze pravde" (God of Justice)
National symboldouble-headed eagle
National colorsred, blue, white
National dayNational Day (Statehood Day), 15 February (1835), the day the first constitution of the country was adopted
Suffrage18 years of age, 16 if employed; universal
Literacy rate98.3%
BordersHungary, Romanai, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Croatia, Montenegro, Albania, Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
Mean elevation442 m
CurrencySerbian dinar (RSD)
ReligionSerbian Orthodox Church (Major)
Terrainextremely varied; to the north, rich fertile plains; to the east, limestone ranges and basins; to the southeast, ancient mountains and hills
Mean elevation442 m
Lowest pointDanube and Timok Rivers 35 m
Highest pointMidzor 2,169 m
Climatein the north, continental climate (cold winters and hot, humid summers with well-distributed rainfall); in other parts, continental and Mediterranean climate (relatively cold winters with heavy snowfall and hot, dry summers and autumns)
Natural resourcesoil, gas, coal, iron ore, copper, zinc, antimony, chromite, gold, silver, magnesium, pyrite, limestone, marble, salt, arable land
Government typeparliamentary republic
PresidentAleksandar Vučić
Life expectancy at birth74.17 years (2022)
Life expectancy at birth indicates the number of years a newborn infant would live if prevailing patterns of mortality at the time of its birth were to stay the same throughout its life.
Agricultural land57.9%
Birth rate8.92 births/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Death rate16.39 deaths/1,000 population (2022 est.)
Sex ratio0.95 male(s)/female (2022 est.)
Industriesautomobiles, base metals, furniture, food processing, machinery, chemicals, sugar, tires, clothes, pharmaceuticals
Exports$25.42 billion (2020 est.)
insulated wiring, tires, corn, cars, iron products, copper (2019)
Imports$30.15 billion (2020 est.)
crude petroleum, cars, packaged medicines, natural gas, refined petroleum (2019)
GDP - per capita (PPP)$18,200 (2020 est.)
Internet country code.rs
Time ZoneCET (UTC+1)
CEST (UTC+2)
Calling Code+381
Drives on theRight
Table last updatedAugust 01, 2022