Vojvodina
Bordering with Hungary, Romania, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, the northernmost Autonomous Province of Vojvodina represents the most developed region of the Republic of Serbia.
Vojvodina lies on the Pannonian Plain, and covers the area of 21.506 km2 with the population of about two million inhabitants. Serbs make the absolute majority in the Vojvodina Province with a population of 1,143,723, followed by Hungarians, Croats, Slovaks, Montenegrins, Romanians and smaller ethnic groups who live in 466 inhabited settlements registered in Vojvodina.
Due to its vast fertile land, Vojvodina has long been called the “granary of Europe”, and because of its multinational population, the “little Europe”. Its administrative capital, town of Novi Sad, is the center of cultural activity in the region, and was poetically referred to as the “Serbian Athens”.
Vojvodina is a predominantly a lowland region, situated in the south-east of the vast Pannonian Plain. After the ancient Panonnian Sea had drained this plain away, two former islands were left out as the only elevations: Vršačke Mountains in the south-eastern Banat and Fruška Gora Mountain in the northern Srem. Vojvodina is intersected by three big navigable rivers: Danube, Tisa and Sava. They divide territory of Vojvodina into three clearly visible units – official districts of Vojvodina : Banat in the East, Bačka in the North-West and Srem in the South-West. All three regions are characterized by fertile arable land, overall economic and cultural development, high population density and demographic variety.
Vojvodina features a moderate continental climate, with cold winters, hot, humid summers with well distributed rainfall and short transitional seasons. The territory of Vojvodina is also intersected by rich and well-organized network of canals, roads and railways that link the Central and Western Europe with Balkans and the Near East. The most important routes are Corridor X for road traffic and Danube-European Corridor VII for water traffic. Danube is navigable along its whole flow through Serbia (588km), as well as its three tributaries: Sava (206km), Tisa (168km) and Begej (75km).
The oldest institutions in Vojvodina, which have traditionally been the cultural bastions of the Serbian people, are: Matica Srpska, founded in 1826, and the Serbian National Theatre, founded in 1861. The University of Novi Sad, as an autonomous institution, was founded in 1960, and represents an educational, scientific and art center of the region.
Vojvodina is one of the most ethnically diversified regions of Europe, with more than 25 various ethnic groups and communities. According to the last official census from 2002, in the Province of Vojvodina live over 2 million of inhabitants of the following ethnic structures : 65 % Serbs, 14,3 % Hungarians, 2,79% Slovaks, 2,78% Croats, 2,71% indeterminate, 2,45% Yugoslavs, 1,75% Montenegrin, 1,50% Romanians, 1,43% Roma, 0,97% Bunjevac people, 0,77% Ruthenians, 0,58% Macedonians, 0,50% regional representatives, 0,23% Ukrainians, other /Albanians, Slovenians, Germans, Poles, Chinese etc/.
