POPULATION 3,964,388
MUSLIM 40 percent
ORTHODOX CHRISTIAN 31 percent
ROMAN CATHOLIC 15 percent
PROTESTANT 4 percent
OTHER 10 percent

Country Overview

Introduction

Bosnia and Herzegovina is a largely mountainous country located in the west-central part of the Balkan Peninsula. The population consists of three principal ethnic-religious groups—Bosnians (Muslim), Serbs (Orthodox Christian), and Croats (Roman Catholic). From 1918 to the early 1990s Bosnia and Herzegovina was a part of Yugoslavia. Following a declaration of independence in 1992, the country suffered fierce warfare. In 1995 a peace agreement was reached that established two divisions within the country—a Bosnian-Croat federation in the central and western areas and Republika Srpska (Serb Republic) in the north and east. There has been no census since the 1992–95 war, as a result of which the ethnic and religious makeup of contemporary Bosnia and Herzegovina can only be estimated.

The religious makeup of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a product of...