President: Nguyen Minh Triet Secretary-general of the Communist Party : Nguyen Phu Trong
President: Ivan Gasparovic Prime minister-elect: Robert Fico
Population
91,519,289
5,483,088
Life Expectancy
72.410 years
76.030 years
Capital City
Hanoi
Bratislava
Largest city
Thanh pho Ho Chi Minh (population: 3,467,330)
Bratislava (population: 423,737)
Human Development Index
0.718
0.872
GDP per capita
$3,400 US
$23,600 US
Literacy Rate
90.3%
99.6%
Corruption Perception Index
2.7
5
Percentage of Women in Parliament
25.8%
19.3%
Wealthiest Citizens
Unemployment Rate
2.300%
13.500%
Death Penalty
Legal
Abolished
Political System
Communist state
parliamentary democracy
Independence date
2 September 1945 (from France)
1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia)
Religions
Buddhist 9.3%, Catholic 6.7%, Hoa Hao 1.5%, Cao Dai 1.1%, Protestant 0.5%, Muslim 0.1%, none 80.8% (1999 census)
Roman Catholic 68.9%, Protestant 10.8%, Greek Catholic 4.1%, other or unspecified 3.2%, none 13% (2001 census)
Languages
Vietnamese (official), English (increasingly favored as a second language), some French, Chinese, and Khmer; mountain area languages (Mon-Khmer and Malayo-Polynesian)
Slovak (official) 83.9%, Hungarian 10.7%, Roma 1.8%, Ukrainian 1%, other or unspecified 2.6% (2001 census)
vehicles 25.9%, machinery and electrical equipment 21.3%, base metals 14.6%, chemicals and minerals 10.1%, plastics 5.4% (2004)
External Debt
$39,730,000,000 $
$72,940,000,000 US
Exchange Rate
dong (VND) per US dollar - 16,548.3 (2008 est.), 16,119 (2007), 15,983 (2006), 15,746 (2005), NA (2004)
Slovak koruny (SKK) per US dollar - 21.05 (2008 est.), 24.919 (2007), 29.611 (2006), 31.018 (2005), 32.257 (2004) note: on 1 January 2009 Slovakia adopted the euro as legal tender
Military Budget as percentage of GDP
2.500%
1.080%
Beijing Olympics Medal Count
1
6
Location
Southeastern Asia, bordering the Gulf of Thailand, Gulf of Tonkin, and South China Sea, alongside China, Laos, and Cambodia
Central Europe, south of Poland
Area
331,210 km sq
49,035 km sq
Coastline
3,444 km
0 km
Climate
tropical in south; monsoonal in north with hot, rainy season (May to September) and warm, dry season (October to March)
