POPULATION 1,964,000
ROMAN CATHOLIC 57.8 percent
REFUSED TO ANSWER 15.7 percent
ATHEIST 10.1 percent
UNKNOWN 7.1 percent
NONCONFESSIONAL BELIEVERS 3.5 percent
MUSLIM 2.4 percent
ORTHODOX 2.3 percent
PROTESTANT 0.9 percent
OTHER 0.2 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

The Republic of Slovenia, a Central European country, is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, and Croatia to the south and southeast. The coast of the Gulf of Venice is a small part of its western border. The first organized Slovene state was the Duchy of Carantania (630–745 C.E.). In 745 Borut, duke of Carantania, accepted Christianity in order to receive support from Bavaria. Carantania politically came under the Bavarian and the Frankish reign. The Habsburgs began to rule the region in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, continuing to do so until the end of the First World War (1918).

Slovenes became part of the multinational and multireligious Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (renamed Yugoslavia...