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Serbia, officially the Republic of Serbia, is a landlocked country in Southeast Europe and Central Europe. Located in the Balkans, it borders Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia to the northwest, Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest. Serbia also claims to share a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia has about 6.6 million inhabitants, excluding Kosovo. Belgrade, Serbia's capital, is also its largest city.
Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic age, the territory of modern-day Serbia, then part of Roman Empire Illyria, Dacia, Moesia, Praevalitana, Dardania, and Pannonia, faced Slavic migrations in the 6th century. Several regional states were founded in the Early Middle Ages and were at times recognised as Tributary state to the Byzantine Empire, Francia and Hungarian kingdoms. The Serbian Kingdom obtained recognition by the Holy See and Constantinople in 1217, reaching its territorial apex in 1346 as the Serbian Empire. By the mid-16th century, the Ottoman Empire annexed the entirety of modern-day Serbia; their rule was at times interrupted by the Habsburg Empire, which began expanding towards Central Serbia from the end of the 17th century while maintaining a foothold in Vojvodina. In the early 19th century, the Serbian Revolution established the nation-state as the region's first constitutional monarchy, which subsequently expanded its territory.
In 1918, in the aftermath of World War I, the Kingdom of Serbia united with the former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina; later in the same year, it joined with other South Slavic nations in the foundation of Yugoslavia, which existed in various political formations until the Yugoslav Wars of the 1990s. During the breakup of Yugoslavia, Serbia formed a union with Montenegro, which was peacefully dissolved in 2006, restoring Serbia's independence as a sovereign state. In 2008, representatives of the Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence, with mixed responses from the international community while Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory.
Serbia is an upper-middle income economy and provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens. It is a Unitary state parliamentary Republic, member of the United Nations, Council of Europe, OSCE, PfP, BSEC, CEFTA, and is acceding to the WTO. Since 2014, the country has been negotiating its EU accession, with the possibility of joining the European Union by 2030. Serbia formally adheres to the policy of military Neutral country.
There exist two prevailing theories about the origin of the ethnonym *Sŕbъ (plur. *Sŕby), one from a Proto-Slavic language with an appellative meaning of a "family kinship" and "alliance", while another from an Sarmatians language with various meanings. In his work, De Administrando Imperio, Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus suggests that the Serbs originated from White Serbia near Francia.
From 1815 to 1882, the official name for Serbia was the Principality of Serbia. From 1882 to 1918, it was renamed to the Kingdom of Serbia, later from 1945 to 1963, the official name for Serbia was the People's Republic of Serbia. This was again renamed the Socialist Republic of Serbia from 1963 to 1990. Since 1990, the official name of the country has been the Republic of Serbia.
Approximately 6,500 BC, during the Neolithic, the Starčevo and Vinča cultures existed in the region of modern-day Belgrade. They dominated much of Southeast Europe as well as parts of Central Europe and Anatolia. Several important archaeological sites from this era, including Lepenski Vir and Vinča-Belo Brdo, still exist near the Danube.
During the Iron Age, local tribes of Triballi, Dardani, and Autariatae were encountered by the Ancient Greece during their cultural and political expansion into the region, from the 5th up to the 2nd century BC. The Celtic tribe of Scordisci settled throughout the area in the 3rd century BC. It formed a tribal state, building several fortifications, including their capital at Singidunum (present-day Belgrade) and Naissos (present-day Niš).
The Ancient Rome conquered much of the territory in the 2nd century BC. In 167 BC, the Roman province of Illyricum was established; the remainder was conquered around 75 BC, forming the Roman province of Moesia Superior; the modern-day Srem District region was conquered in 9 BC; and Bačka and Banat in 106 AD after the Dacian Wars. As a result of this, contemporary Serbia extends fully or partially over several former Roman provinces, including Moesia, Pannonia, Praevalitana, Dalmatia, Dacia, and Macedonia. Seventeen Roman Emperors were born in the area of modern-day Serbia, second only to contemporary Italy. The most famous of these was Constantine the Great, the first Christian Emperor, who issued an edict ordering religious tolerance throughout the Empire.
When the Roman Empire was divided in 395, most of Serbia remained under the Byzantine Empire, and its northwestern parts were included in the Western Roman Empire. By the 6th century, South Slavs migrated into the Byzantine territory in large numbers. They merged with the local Romanised population that was gradually assimilated.
During these centuries the Serbian state (and influence) expanded significantly. The northern part (modern Vojvodina), was ruled by the Kingdom of Hungary. The period after 1371, known as the Fall of the Serbian Empire saw the once-powerful state fragmented into several principalities, culminating in the Battle of Kosovo (1389) against the rising Ottoman Empire. By the end of the 14th century, the Turks had conquered and ruled the territories south of the Šar Mountains. The political stronghold of Serbia shifted northwards, when the capital of the newly established Serbian Despotate was transferred to Belgrade in 1403, before moving to Smederevo in 1430. The Despotate was then under the double vassalage of Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. The fall of Smederevo on 20 June 1459, which marked the full conquest of the Serbian Despotate by the Ottomans, also symbolically signified the end of the Serbian state.
After the loss of statehood to the Ottoman Empire, Serbian resistance continued in northern regions (modern Vojvodina), under titular despots (until 1537), and popular leaders like Jovan Nenad (1526–1527). From 1521 to 1552, Ottomans conquered Belgrade and regions of Syrmia, Bačka, and Banat. Wars and rebellions constantly challenged Ottoman rule. One of the most significant was the Banat Uprising in 1594 and 1595, which was part of the Long War (1593–1606) between the Habsburgs and the Ottomans. The area of modern Vojvodina endured a century-long Ottoman occupation before being ceded to the Habsburg monarchy, partially by the Treaty of Karlovci (1699), and fully by the Treaty of Požarevac (1718).
During the Habsburg-Ottoman war (1683–1699), much of Serbia switched from Ottoman rule to Habsburg control from 1688 to 1690. However, the Ottoman army reconquered a large part of Serbia in the winter of 1689/1690, leading to a brutal massacre of the civilian population by uncontrolled Albanians and Tatars units. As a result of the persecutions, several tens of thousands of Serbs, led by the patriarch, Arsenije III Crnojević, fled northwards to settle in Hungary, an event known as the Great Migration of 1690. In August 1690, following several petitions, the Emperor Leopold I formally granted Serbs from the Habsburg monarchy a first set of "privileges", primarily to guarantee them freedom of religion. As a consequence, the ecclesiastical centre of the Serbs also moved northwards, to the Metropolitanate of Karlovci, and the Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was once-again abolished by the Ottomans in 1766.
In 1718–39, the Habsburg monarchy occupied much of Central Serbia and established the Kingdom of Serbia as crownland. Those gains were lost by the Treaty of Belgrade in 1739, when the Ottomans retook the region. Apart from territory of modern-day Vojvodina which remained under the Habsburg Empire, central regions of Serbia were occupied once again by the Habsburgs in 1788–1792.
Following the clashes between the Ottoman army and Serbs in Belgrade in 1862, and under pressure from the Great Powers, by 1867 the last Turkish soldiers left the Principality, making the country de facto independent. By enacting a new constitution in 1869, without consulting the Porte, Jovan Ristic confirmed the de facto independence of the country. In 1876, Serbia declared war on the Ottoman Empire, siding with the ongoing Christian uprisings in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Bulgaria.
The formal independence of the country was internationally recognised at the Congress of Berlin in 1878, which ended the Russo-Turkish War; this treaty, however, prohibited Serbia from uniting with other Serbian regions by placing Bosnia and Herzegovina under Austria-Hungary occupation, alongside the occupation of the region of Raška. From 1815 to 1903, the principality was ruled by the House of Obrenović, save for the rule of Prince Aleksandar Karađorđević between 1842 and 1858. In 1882, Principality of Serbia became the Kingdom of Serbia, ruled by King Milan I. The House of Karađorđević, descendants of the revolutionary leader Karađorđe Petrović, assumed power in 1903 following the May Overthrow. The 1848 revolution in Austria led to the establishment of the autonomous territory of Serbian Vojvodina; by 1849, the region was transformed into the Voivodeship of Serbia and Banat of Temeschwar.
The assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria on 28 June 1914 in Sarajevo by Gavrilo Princip, a member of the Young Bosnia organisation, led to Austria-Hungary declaring war on Serbia, on 28 July 1914, setting off World War I.
Serbia won the first major battles of the war, including the Battle of Cer, and the Battle of Kolubara. Despite initial success, it was eventually overpowered by the Central Powers in 1915 and Austro-Hungarian occupation of Serbia followed. Most of its army and some people retreated to Greece and Corfu, suffering immense losses on the way. After the Central Powers' military situation on other fronts worsened, the remains of the Serb army returned east and led a final breakthrough through enemy lines on 15 September 1918, liberating Serbia and defeating Bulgaria and Austria-Hungary. Serbia, with its campaign, was a major Balkan Entente Power which contributed significantly to the Allied victory in the Balkans in November 1918, especially by helping France force Bulgaria's capitulation. Највећа српска победа: Фронт који за савезнике није био битан Serbia's casualties accounted for 8% of the total Entente military deaths; 58% (243,600) soldiers of the Serbian army perished in the war. The total number of casualties is placed around 700,000, more than 16% of Serbia's prewar size, and a majority (57%) of its overall male population. Тема недеље : Највећа српска победа : Сви српски тријумфи : ПОЛИТИКА Serbia suffered the biggest casualty rate in World War I.
As the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, the territory of Syrmia united with Serbia on 24 November 1918. Just a day later, the Great People's Assembly of Serbs, Bunjevci and other Slavs in Banat, Bačka and Baranja declared the unification of these regions (Banat, Bačka, and Baranja) with Serbia.
On 26 November 1918, the Podgorica Assembly deposed the House of Petrović-Njegoš and united Montenegro with Serbia.Bojovi, Jovan, Zakonik knjza Danila, Titograd: Istorijski institut Crne Gore, 1982.––––––, Podgorič ka skupština 1918: dokumenta, Gornji Milanovac: Dečje novine, 1989. On 1 December 1918, in Belgrade, Serbian Prince Regent Alexander Karađorđević proclaimed the Kingdom of the Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes, under King Peter I of Serbia. King Peter was succeeded by his son, Alexander, in August 1921. Serb centralists and Croat autonomists clashed in the parliament, and most governments were fragile and short-lived. Nikola Pašić, a conservative prime minister, headed or dominated most governments until his death. King Alexander established a dictatorship in 1929 with the aim of establishing the Yugoslavism and single Yugoslavs, changed the name of the country to Yugoslavia. The effect of Alexander's dictatorship was to further alienate the non-Serbs living in Yugoslavia from the idea of unity.
Alexander was assassinated in Marseille, during an official visit in 1934 by Vlado Chernozemski, member of the IMRO. Alexander was succeeded by his eleven-year-old son Peter II. In August 1939 the Cvetković–Maček Agreement established an autonomous Banate of Croatia as a solution to Croatian concerns.
The Yugoslav territory was the scene of a civil war between Chetniks commanded by Draža Mihailović and communist partisans commanded by Josip Broz Tito. Axis auxiliary units of the Serbian Volunteer Corps and the Serbian State Guard fought against both of these forces. The siege of Kraljevo was a major battle of the uprising in Serbia, led by Chetnik forces against the Nazis. Several days after the battle began the German forces committed a massacre of approximately 2,000 civilians in an event known as the Kraljevo massacre, in a reprisal for the attack.
Loznica of 2,950 villagers in Western Serbia in 1941 was the first large execution of civilians in occupied Serbia by Nazi, with Kragujevac massacre and Novi Sad Raid of Jews and Serbs by Hungarian fascists being the most notorious, with over 3,000 victims in each case. After one year of occupation, around 16,000 Serbian Jews were murdered in the area, or around 90% of its pre-war Jewish population during The Holocaust in Serbia. Many concentration camps were established across the area. Banjica concentration camp was the largest concentration camp and jointly run by the German army and Nedić's regime, with primary victims being Serbian Jews, Romani people, and Serb political prisoners.
Hundreds of thousands of ethnic Serbs fled the Axis puppet state known as the Independent State of Croatia and sought refuge in German-occupied Serbia, seeking to escape the large-scale persecution and Genocide of Serbs, Jews, and Roma being committed by the Ustaše regime. The number of Serb victims was approximately 300,000 to 350,000. According to Tito himself, Serbs made up the vast majority of Anti-fascism fighters and Yugoslav Partisans for the whole course of World War II.
The Republic of Užice was a short-lived liberated territory established by the Partisans and the first liberated territory in World War II Europe, organised as a military mini-state that existed in the autumn of 1941 in the west of occupied Serbia. By late 1944, the Belgrade Offensive swung in favour of the partisans in the civil war; the partisans subsequently gained control of Yugoslavia. Following the Belgrade Offensive, the Syrmian Front was the last major military action of World War II in Serbia. A study by Vladimir Žerjavić estimates total war-related deaths in Yugoslavia at 1,027,000, including 273,000 in Serbia.
Belgrade, the capital of FPR Yugoslavia and PR Serbia, hosted the first Non-Aligned Movement Summit in September 1961, as well as the first major gathering of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) with the aim of implementing the Helsinki Accords from October 1977 to March 1978. (2026). 9783899719383, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht. ISBN 9783899719383 The 1972 smallpox outbreak in SAP Kosovo and other parts of SR Serbia was the last major outbreak of smallpox in Europe since World War II.
Fuelled by ethnic tensions, the Yugoslav Wars (1991–2001) erupted, with the most severe conflicts taking place in Croatia and Bosnian War, where the large ethnic Serb communities opposed independence from Yugoslavia. The FRY remained outside the conflicts, but provided logistic, military and financial support to Serb forces in the wars. In response, the UN imposed sanctions against Serbia and Montenegro which led to political isolation and the collapse of the economy (GDP decreased from $24 billion in 1990 to under $10 billion in 1993). Serbia was in the 2000s sued on the charges of alleged genocide by neighbouring Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia but in both cases the main charges against Serbia were dismissed.
Multi-party democracy was introduced in Serbia in 1990, officially dismantling the one-party system. Despite constitutional changes, Milošević maintained strong political influence over the state media and security apparatus. Wide Angle, Milosevic and the Media. "Part 3: Dictatorship on the Airwaves." PBS. Quotation from film: "... the things that happened at state TV, warmongering, things we can admit to now: false information, biased reporting. That went directly from Milošević to the head of TV". When the ruling Socialist Party of Serbia refused to accept its defeat in municipal elections in 1996, Serbians engaged in large protests against the government.
In 1998, continued clashes between the Albanian guerilla Kosovo Liberation Army and Yugoslav security forces led to the short Kosovo War (1998–99), in which NATO intervened, leading to the withdrawal of Serbian forces and the establishment of UNMIK in the province. After the Yugoslav Wars, Serbia became home to highest number of and internally displaced persons in Europe.
After presidential elections in September 2000, opposition parties accused Milošević of electoral fraud. A campaign of civil resistance followed, led by the Democratic Opposition of Serbia (DOS), a broad coalition of anti-Milošević parties. This culminated on 5 October when half a million people from all over the country congregated in Belgrade, compelling Milošević to concede defeat.Ivan Vejvoda, 'Civil Society versus Slobodan Milošević: Serbia 1991–2000', in Adam Roberts and Timothy Garton Ash (eds.), Civil Resistance and Power Politics: The Experience of Non-violent Action from Gandhi to the Present. Oxford & New York: Oxford University Press, 2009, pp. 295–316. . The fall of Milošević ended Yugoslavia's international isolation. Milošević was sent to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The DOS announced that FR Yugoslavia would seek to join the European Union. In 2003, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed Serbia and Montenegro; the EU opened negotiations with the country for the Stabilisation and Association Agreement.
Serbia's political climate remained tense and in 2003, Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić was assassinated as result of a plot originating from organised crime and former security officials. In 2004 unrest in Kosovo took place, leaving 19 people dead and a number of Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries destroyed or damaged.
The Assembly of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia on 17 February 2008. Serbia immediately condemned the declaration and continues to deny any statehood to Kosovo. The declaration has sparked varied responses from the international community. Status-neutral talks between Serbia and Kosovo-Albanian authorities are held in Brussels, mediated by the EU.
Serbia officially applied for membership in the European Union on 22 December 2009, and received candidate status on 1 March 2012, following a delay in December 2011. Following a positive recommendation of the European Commission and European Council in June 2013, negotiations to join the EU commenced in January 2014.
In 2012 Aleksandar Vučić and his Serbian Progressive Party came to power. According to a number of international analysts, Serbia has suffered from democratic backsliding into authoritarianism, followed by a decline in media freedom and civil liberties. After the COVID-19 pandemic spread to Serbia in March 2020, a state of emergency was declared and a curfew was introduced for the first time in Serbia since World War II. In April 2022, President Aleksandar Vučić was re-elected. In December 2023, President Vučić won a snap parliamentary election. The election resulted in protests, with opposition supporters claiming that the election result was fraudulent. On 16 January 2022, a Serbian constitutional referendum took place in which citizens chose to amend the Constitution concerning the judiciary. The changes were presented as a step towards reducing political influence in the judicial system. The country was chosen to host international specialised exposition Expo 2027. The Serbian government is working with Rio Tinto corporation on a project which aims to develop Europe's biggest lithium mine. Mining lithium became a matter of debate in the society and several protests against mining took place. In 2024–2025, large-scale anti-corruption protests, some violent, erupted.
Ancient mountains in the southeast corner of the country belong to the Rhodopes system. Elevation ranges from the Midžor peak of the Balkan Mountains at (the highest peak in Serbia, excluding Kosovo) to the lowest point of just near the Danube river at Prahovo. The largest lake is Đerdap Lake () and the longest river passing through Serbia is the Danube ().
Differences in elevation, proximity to the Adriatic Sea and large river basins, as well as exposure to the winds account for climate variations. Southern Serbia is subject to Mediterranean influences. The Dinaric Alps and other mountain ranges contribute to the cooling of most of the warm air masses. Winters are quite harsh in the Pešter plateau, because of the mountains which encircle it.Radovanović, M and Dučić, V, 2002, Variability of Climate in Serbia in the Second Half of the 20th century , EGS XXVII General Assembly, Nice, 21 to 26 April 2002, abstract #2283, 27:2283–, provided by the Smithsonian / NASA Astrophysics Data System One of the climatic features of Serbia is Košava, a cold and very southeastern wind which starts in the Carpathian Mountains and follows the Danube northwest through the Iron Gate where it gains a Mountain jet and continues to Belgrade and can spread as far south as Niš.
The average annual air temperature for the period 1961–1990 for the area with an elevation of up to is . The areas with an elevation of have an average annual temperature of around , and over of elevation around . The lowest recorded temperature in Serbia was on 13 January 1985, Karajukića Bunari in Pešter, and the highest was , on 24 July 2007, recorded in Smederevska Palanka.
Serbia is one of few European countries with very high risk of natural hazards (earthquakes, storms, floods, droughts). It is estimated that potential floods, particularly in areas of Central Serbia, threaten over 500 larger settlements and an area of 16,000 square kilometres. The most disastrous were the floods in May 2014, when 57 people died and a damage of over 1.5 billion euros was inflicted.
Due to configuration of the terrain, natural lakes are sparse and small; most of them are located in the lowlands of Vojvodina, like the aeolian lake Palić or numerous along river flows (like Zasavica and Carska Bara). However, there are numerous , mostly due to hydroelectric dams, the biggest being Đerdap (Iron Gates) on the Danube with on the Serbian side (a total area of is shared with Romania); Perućac on the Drina, and Vlasina Lake. The largest waterfall, Jelovarnik, located in Kopaonik, is 71 m high.
The country has abundance of mineral and thermal water, with more than 1000 sources.
Mountain of Tara in western Serbia is one of the last regions in the country where bears can still roam free. Serbia is home to about 380 species of birds. In Carska Bara, there are over 300 bird species on just a few square kilometres. Uvac is considered one of the last habitats of the Griffon vulture in Europe. In area around the city of Kikinda, in the northernmost part of the country, some 145 endangered are noted, making it the world's biggest settlement of these species. The country is considerably rich with threatened species of bats and butterflies as well.
There are 470 protected areas of Serbia, encompassing or 9.4% of the country. Those protected areas include 5 national parks (Đerdap, Tara, Kopaonik, Fruška Gora and Šar Mountain), 22 , 33 "landscapes of outstanding features", 62 nature reserves, and 307 natural monuments. With 29.1% of its territory covered by forest, Serbia is considered to be a middle-forested country, compared on a global scale to world forest coverage at 30%, and European average of 35%. The total forest area in Serbia is ( or 53% are state-owned, and or 47% are privately owned) or per inhabitant. It had a 2019 Forest Landscape Integrity Index mean score of 5.29/10, ranking it 105th globally out of 172 countries. The most common trees are oak, beech, pines, and firs.
Air pollution is a problem in the Bor area due to copper mining and smelting, and in the petrochemical industrial region of Pančevo. Some cities suffer from water supply problems, due to mismanagement and low investments in the past, as well as water pollution (like the pollution of the Ibar River from the Trepča zinc-lead combinate, affecting the city of Kraljevo, or the presence of natural arsenic in underground waters in Zrenjanin).
Poor waste management has been identified as one of the most important environmental problems in Serbia and the recycling is a fledgling activity, with only 15% of its waste being turned back for reuse. The 1999 NATO bombing caused serious damage to the environment, with several thousand tonnes of toxic chemicals stored in targeted factories and refineries released into the soil and water basins.
The President of the Republic is the head of state, is elected by popular vote to a five-year term and is limited by the constitution to a maximum of two terms. In addition to being the commander in chief of the armed forces, the president has the procedural duty of appointing the prime minister with the consent of the parliament, and has some influence on foreign policy. Aleksandar Vučić of the Serbian Progressive Party is the current president following the 2017 presidential election. Seat of the presidency is Novi Dvor.
The government is composed of the prime minister and cabinet ministers. The government is responsible for proposing legislation and a budget, executing the laws, and guiding the foreign and internal policies. The current prime minister is Đuro Macut, nominated by the Serbian Progressive Party. The National Assembly is a unicameral legislative body. The National Assembly has the power to enact laws, approve the budget, schedule presidential elections, select and dismiss the prime minister and other ministers, declare war, and ratify international treaties and agreements. It is composed of 250 proportionally elected members who serve four-year terms. Following the 2023 parliamentary election, the largest political parties in the National Assembly are the populist Serbian Progressive Party and Socialist Party of Serbia, that with its partners, hold more than a supermajority number of seats.
According to International IDEA's Global State of Democracy (GSoD) Indices and Democracy Tracker, Serbia performs in the mid- range on overall democratic measures, with particular weaknesses in the absence of corruption.
Courts of special jurisdictions are the Administrative Court, commercial courts (including the Commercial Court of Appeal at second instance) and misdemeanour courts (including Misdemeanour Appellate Court at second instance). The judiciary is overseen by the Ministry of Justice. Serbia has a typical civil law legal system.
Law enforcement is the responsibility of the Serbian Police, which is subordinate to the Ministry of the Interior. Serbian Police fields 27,363 uniformed officers. National security and counterintelligence are the responsibility of the Security Intelligence Agency.
On 17 February 2008, Kosovo unilaterally declared independence from Serbia. In protest, Serbia initially recalled its ambassadors from countries that recognised Kosovo's independence. The resolution of 26 December 2007 by the National Assembly stated that both the Kosovo declaration of independence and recognition thereof by any state would be gross violation of international law. Резолуција Народне скупштине о заштити суверенитета, територијалног интегритета и уставног поретка Републике Србије // See Article 4. On 22 July 2010, the International Court of Justice issued a non-binding advisory opinion saying that the Kosovo declaration of independence did not violate international law.
Serbia began cooperation and dialogue with NATO in 2006, when the country joined the Partnership for Peace programme and the Euro-Atlantic Partnership Council. The country's military neutrality was formally proclaimed by a resolution adopted by Serbia's parliament in December 2007, which makes joining any military alliance contingent on a popular referendum, Резолуција Народне скупштине о заштити суверенитета, територијалног интегритета и уставног поретка Републике Србије // See Article 6. Како је утврђена војна неутралност politika.rs, 12 January 2010. a stance acknowledged by NATO. NATO "accepts Serbia's determination to be neutral" b92.net, 13 October 2017. В зависимости от независимости: Сербия готова разорвать отношения с Западом из-за Косово Kommersant, 27 December 2007. On the other hand, Serbia's relations with Russia are habitually described by mass media as a "centuries-old religious, ethnic and political alliance" and Russia is said to have sought to solidify its relations with Serbia since the imposition of sanctions against Russia in 2014.
Following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Serbia drew international scrutiny for not joining EU sanctions against Russia and maintaining bilateral relations, citing its own past suffering with sanctions. It is one of the only countries in Europe not to sanction Russia. However, Serbia voted to condemn the invasion, supporting the adoption of the United Nations draft resolution demanding Russia to withdraw its military forces from Ukraine, as well as supporting the suspension of Russia from the UN Human Rights Council.
Traditionally having relied on a large number of Conscription, Serbian Armed Forces went through a period of downsizing, restructuring and professionalisation. Conscription was abolished in 2011. Serbian Armed Forces have 28,000 active troops, supplemented by the "active reserve" which numbers 20,000 members and "passive reserve" with about 170,000. In 2024 the Serbian president approved the reintroduction of mandatory military service, which was abolished in 2011. If the Government adopts this decision, military service will last 75 days, starting with 2026.
The country participates in the NATO Individual Partnership Action Plan programme, but has no intention of joining NATO, due to significant popular rejection, largely a legacy of the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia in 1999. It is an observer member of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) as of 2013. The country also signed the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe. The Serbian Armed Forces take part in several multinational peacekeeping missions, including deployments in Lebanon, Cyprus, Ivory Coast, and Liberia.
Serbia is a major producer and exporter of military equipment in the region. As of 2026, defence exports totalled between 500 and 800 million euros. The defence industry has seen significant growth over the years and it continues to grow on a yearly basis.
The Constitution of Serbia recognises two autonomous provinces, Vojvodina in the north, and the disputed territory of Kosovo and Metohija in the south, while the remaining area of Central Serbia has never had its own regional authority. Following the Kosovo War, UN peacekeepers entered Kosovo and Metohija, as per UNSC Resolution 1244. The government of Serbia does not recognise Kosovo's February 2008 declaration of independence, considering it illegal and illegitimate. Decision on the annulment of the illegitimate acts of the provisional institutions of self-government in Kosovo and Metohija on their declaration of unilateral independence Government of Serbia, 2008
The economy was affected by the Great Recession. After almost a decade of strong economic growth (average of 4.45% per year), Serbia entered the recession in 2009 with negative growth of −3% and again in 2012 and 2014 with −1% and −1.8%, respectively. As the government was fighting effects of the crisis, the public debt more than doubled: from a pre-crisis level of just under 30% to about 70% of GDP and trending downwards recently to around 50%. The labour force stands at 3.169 million, with 64.14% employed in services sector, 23.02% in industry and 12.84% in the agriculture. The average monthly net salary in December 2025 stood at 124,089 dinars or $1,245. Unemployment remains a problem, with rate of 8.9% .
Since 2000, Serbia has attracted over $40 billion in foreign direct investment (FDI). Blue-chip corporations making investments include Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, Siemens, Bosch, Philip Morris, Michelin, Coca-Cola, Carlsberg Group and others. In the energy sector, Russian energy giants Gazprom and Lukoil have made large investments. In the metallurgy sector, Chinese steel and copper giants, Hesteel and Zijin Mining have acquired key complexes.
Serbia has an unfavourable trade balance: imports exceed exports by 26.6%. Serbia's exports, however, recorded steady growth in the 2010s reaching $37.3 billion in 2025. The country has free trade agreements with the EFTA and CEFTA, a preferential trade regime with the European Union, a Generalised System of Preferences with the United States, and individual free trade agreements with Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, and Turkey.
Agricultural production is most prominent in Vojvodina on the fertile Pannonian Basin. Other agricultural regions include Mačva, Pomoravlje, Tamnava, Rasina District, and Jablanica.
70% of agricultural production is from crop field production and 30% is from livestock production. Serbia is world's second largest producer of (582,485 tonnes; second to China), second largest of Raspberry (89,602 tonnes, second to Poland), it is also a significant producer of maize (6.48 million tonnes, ranked 32nd in the world) and wheat (2.07 million tonnes, ranked 35th in the world). Other important agricultural products are sunflower, sugar beet, soybean, potato, apple, pork meat, beef, poultry and dairy.
The country has a long tradition of winemaking, with several autochthonous grape varieties still cultivated today. There are around 20,000 hectares of vineyards in Serbia, with approximately 80,000 agricultural households engaged in grape production and an annual wine output of about 30 million litres. The most famous viticulture regions are located in Vojvodina and Šumadija.
The automotive industry is dominated by cluster located in Kragujevac and its vicinity, and contributes to export products about $2 billion. Serbia is a leading steel producer in the Southeast Europe and produced nearly 2 million tonnes of raw steel in 2018, coming entirely from Hesteel Serbia, owned by the Chinese Hesteel Group. Serbia's mining industry is comparatively strong: Serbia is the 18th largest producer of coal (7th in Europe) extracted from large deposits in RB Kolubara and Kostolac basins; it is also world's 23rd largest (3rd in Europe) producer of copper which is extracted by Zijin Bor Copper, a large copper mining company, acquired by Chinese Zijin Mining in 2018; significant gold extraction is developed around Majdanpek. Serbia notably manufactures Intel smartphones named Tesla smartphones.
Serbia's food industry is well known both regionally and internationally and is one of the strong points of the economy. Some of the international brand-names established production in Serbia: PepsiCo and Nestlé in food-processing sector; Coca-Cola (Belgrade), Heineken (Novi Sad) and Carlsberg (Bačka Palanka) in beverage industry; Nordzucker in sugar industry. Serbia's electronics industry had its peak in the 1980s and the industry today is only a third of what it was back then, but has witnessed a something of revival in last decade with investments of companies such as Siemens (wind turbines) in Subotica, Panasonic (lighting devices) in Svilajnac, and Gorenje (electrical home appliances) in Valjevo. The pharmaceutical industry in Serbia comprises a dozen manufacturers of generic drugs, of which Hemofarm in Vršac and Galenika in Belgrade, account for 80% of production volume. Domestic production meets over 60% of the local demand.
Serbia has an abundance of coal, and significant reserves of oil and gas. Serbia's proven reserves of 5.5 billion tonnes of lignite are the fifth largest in the world (second in Europe, after Germany).
Coal is found in two large deposits: Kolubara (4 billion tonnes of reserves) and Kostolac (1.5 billion tonnes). Despite being small on a world scale, Serbia's oil and gas resources (77.4 million tonnes of oil equivalent and 48.1 billion cubic metres, respectively) have a certain regional importance since they are largest in the region of former Yugoslavia as well as the Balkans (excluding Romania). Almost 90% of the discovered oil and gas are to be found in Banat and those oil and gas fields are by size among the largest in the Pannonian basin but are average on a European scale.
The production of electricity in 2015 in Serbia was 36.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh), while the final electricity consumption amounted to 35.5 billion kilowatt-hours (kWh). Most of the electricity produced comes from thermal power plants (72.7% of all electricity) and to a lesser degree from hydroelectricity (27.3%). There are 6 lignite-operated thermal-power plants with an installed power of 3,936 MW. Total installed power of 9 hydroelectric-power plants is 2,831 MW. In addition to this, there are mazute and gas-operated thermal-power plants with an installed power of 353 MW. The entire production of electricity is concentrated in Elektroprivreda Srbije (EPS), public electric-utility power company.
The current oil production in Serbia amounts to over 1.1 million tonnes of oil equivalent and satisfies some 43% of country's needs while the rest is imported. National petrol company, Naftna Industrija Srbije (NIS), was acquired in 2008 by Gazprom Neft. The company's refinery in Pančevo (capacity of 4.8 million tonnes) is one of the most modern oil-refineries in Europe; it also operates network of 334 filling stations in Serbia (74% of domestic market) and additional 36 stations in Bosnia and Herzegovina, 31 in Bulgaria, and 28 in Romania. There are 155 kilometres of crude oil pipelines connecting Pančevo and Novi Sad refineries as a part of trans-national Adria oil pipeline.
Serbia is heavily dependent on foreign sources of natural gas, with only 17% coming from domestic production (totalling 491 million cubic metres in 2012) and the rest is imported, mainly from Russia (via gas pipelines that run through Ukraine and Hungary). Srbijagas, public company, operates the natural gas transportation system which comprise of trunk and regional natural gas pipelines and a 450 million cubic metre underground gas storage facility at Banatski Dvor. In 2021, the Balkan Stream gas pipeline opened through Serbia.
Serbian road network carries the bulk of traffic in the country. Total length of roads is of which are "class-IA state roads" (i.e. motorways); are "class-IB state roads" (national roads); are "class-II state roads" (regional roads) and are "municipal roads". The road network, except for the most of class-IA roads, are of comparatively lower quality to the Western European standards because of lack of financial resources for their maintenance in the last 20 years.
Over of new motorways were constructed in the last decade and additional are currently under construction: A5 motorway (from north of Kruševac to Čačak) and -long segment of A2 (between Čačak and Požega). Coach transport is very extensive: almost every place in the country is connected by bus, from largest cities to the villages; in addition there are international routes (mainly to countries of Western Europe with large Serb diaspora). Routes, both domestic and international, are served by more than hundred intercity coach services, biggest of which are Lasta Beograd and Niš-Ekspres. , there were 2,476,419 registered passenger cars in the country.
Serbia has of rail tracks, of which are electrified and are double-track railway. The major rail hub is Belgrade (and to a lesser degree Niš), while the most important railways include: Belgrade–Subotica–Budapest (Hungary) (currently upgraded to high-speed status), Belgrade–Bar (Montenegro), Belgrade–Šid–Zagreb (Croatia)/Belgrade–Niš–Sofia (Bulgaria) (part of Pan-European Corridor X), and Niš–Thessaloniki(Greece). The continuation of the line, which will connect Belgrade with Budapest, Hungary, is currently under construction and is expected to open in 2026. Construction work for 212 km-long prolongation of the high-speed rail line to the south, to the city of Niš, is set to commence in 2024 and with its planned completion by the end of the decade four of country's five largest cities will be connected by the high-speed rail lines. Rail services are operated by Srbija Voz (passenger transport) and Srbija Kargo (freight transport).
There are three airports with regular passenger services reaching over 6 million passengers in 2022 with Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport serving bulk of it, being a hub of flagship carrier Air Serbia which flies to 80 destinations in 32 countries (including intercontinental flights to New York City, Chicago and Tianjin) and carried 2.75 million passengers in 2022.
Serbia has a developed inland water transport since there are of navigable inland waterways ( of navigable rivers and of navigable canals), which are almost all located in northern third of the country. The most important inland waterway is the Danube. Other navigable rivers include Sava, Tisza, Begej and Timiş Rivers, all of which connect Serbia with Northern and Western Europe through the Rhine–Main–Danube Canal and North Sea route, to Eastern Europe via the Tisza, Begej and Danube Black Sea routes, and to Southern Europe via the Sava river. More than 8 million tonnes of cargo were transported on Serbian rivers and canals in 2018 while the largest river ports are: Novi Sad, Belgrade, Pančevo, Smederevo, Prahovo and Šabac.
Tourism is mainly focused on the mountains and spas of the country, which are mostly visited by domestic tourists, as well as Belgrade and, to a lesser degree, Novi Sad, which are preferred choices of foreign tourists (almost two-thirds of all foreign visits are made to these two cities).
The most famous mountain resorts are Kopaonik, Stara Planina and Zlatibor. There are also many in Serbia, the biggest of which are Vrnjačka Banja, Soko Banja, and Banja Koviljača. City-break and conference tourism is developed in Belgrade and Novi Sad. Other touristic products that Serbia offer are natural wonders like Djavolja varos, Christian pilgrimage to the many Orthodox monasteries across the country and the river cruising along the Danube. There are several internationally popular music festivals held in Serbia, such as EXIT and the Guča trumpet festival.
During the 1990s, Serbia had the largest refugee population in Europe. Refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) in Serbia formed between 7% and 7.5% of its population at the time – about half a million refugees sought refuge in the country following the series of Yugoslav wars, mainly from Croatia (and to a lesser extent from Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the IDPs from Kosovo.
Serbs are the largest ethnic group in Serbia, at 5,360,239 people or 81% of the non-Kosovar population. Serbia is one of the European countries with the highest number of registered national minorities, while the province of Vojvodina is recognisable for its multi-ethnic and Multiculturalism identity. Despite a decline in recent years, with a population of 184,442, Hungarians remain the largest ethnic minority in Serbia, concentrated predominantly in northern Vojvodina and representing 2.8% of the country's population (10.5% in Vojvodina). The official Romani people population was 131,936 according to the 2022 census, though unofficial estimates indicate a higher population. Bosniaks with 153,801 and Muslims by nationality with 13,011 are concentrated in Raška (Sandžak), in the southwest. Other minority groups include Albanians, Croats and Bunjevci, Slovaks, Yugoslavs, Montenegrins, Romanians and Vlachs, Macedonians and Bulgarians. Chinese, estimated at 15,000, are the only significant non-European immigrant minority. Chinese Migrants Use Serbia as Gate to Europe , ABC News, 13 July 2010. Most recently, tens of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians have immigrated to Serbia following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine. By January 2024, more than 300,000 Russians had emigrated to Serbia during the war. About one in 10 have been issued a residence permit, though integration issues have been reported, with Russian immigrants living in a "parallel society".
According to the World Happiness Report 2024, Serbia ranks 37th of 140 countries.
62% of the population resides in urban areas, with Belgrade alone accounting for 18%. Belgrade is the only Serbian city with more than a million inhabitants and there are four more with over 100,000 inhabitants.
Standard Serbian is mutually intelligible with recognised minority languages of Bosnian language and Croatian, as all three are based on the most widespread Shtokavian dialect from Eastern Herzegovina. Other recognised minority languages are: Hungarian, Slovak language, Albanian, Romanian, Bulgarian, Rusyn, and Macedonian. All these languages are in official use in municipalities or cities where the ethnic minority exceeds 15% of the total population. In Vojvodina, the provincial administration co-officially uses, besides Serbian, five other languages (Slovak, Hungarian, Croatian, Romanian and Rusyn).
In 2022, Roman Catholics numbered 257,269 in Serbia, or 3.9% of the population, mostly in northern Vojvodina which is home to ethnic minority groups such as Hungarians, Croats, and Bunjevci, as well as to some Slovaks and Czechs. Other Christian denominations are followed by around 60,000 citizens (0.9% of the population).
Protestantism accounts for 0.8% of the country's population, chiefly Lutheranism among Slovaks in Vojvodina as well as Calvinism among Reformed Hungarians.
Muslims, with 278,212 or 4.2% of the population, form the second largest religious group. Islam has a strong historic following in the southern regions of Serbia, primarily in southern Raška. Bosniaks are the largest Islamic community in Serbia, followed by Albanians.
In 2022, there were only 709 Jews in Serbia, compared to over 30,000 prior to World War II. Atheists numbered 74,139, or 1.1% of the population, and an additional 8,654 declared themselves to be .
Education in Serbia is regulated by the Ministry of Education and Science. Education starts in either preschools or elementary schools. Children enroll in elementary schools at the age of seven. Compulsory education consists of eight grades of elementary school. Students have the opportunity to attend gymnasiums and vocational schools for another four years, or to enroll in vocational training for two to three years.
Following the completion of gymnasiums or vocational schools, students have the opportunity to attend university. Elementary and secondary education are also available in languages of recognised minorities in Serbia, where classes are held in Hungarian, Slovak, Albanian, Romanian, Rusyn, Bulgarian as well as Bosnian and Croatian languages. Petnica Science Centre is a notable institution for extracurricular science education focusing on gifted students.
There are 19 universities in Serbia (nine public universities with a total number of 86 faculties and ten private universities with 51 faculties). Survey Serbia Online, Retrieved on 31 July 2009 In 2018/2019 academic year, 210,480 students attended 19 universities (181,310 at public universities and some 29,170 at private universities) while 47,169 attended 81 "higher schools". Public universities in Serbia are: the University of Belgrade, University of Novi Sad, University of Niš, University of Kragujevac, University of Priština, Public University of Novi Pazar as well as three specialist universities – University of Arts, University of Defence and University of Criminal Investigation and Police Studies. The largest private universities include Megatrend University and Singidunum University, both in Belgrade, and Educons University in Novi Sad. The University of Belgrade (placed in 401–500 bracket on 2024 Shanghai Ranking of World Universities) and University of Novi Sad are generally considered the best institutions of higher learning in the country.
Serbia spent 0.9% of GDP on scientific research in 2017, which is slightly below the European average. Serbia R&D expenditure as a share of GDP, 1960–2018 – knoema.com Serbia was ranked 54th in the Global Innovation Index in 2025.Since 2018, Serbia is a full member of CERN. Serbia has a long history of excellence in maths and computer sciences which has created a strong pool of engineering talent, although economic sanctions during the 1990s and chronic underinvestment in research forced many scientific professionals to leave the country. Nevertheless, there are several areas in which Serbia still excels such as growing information technology sector, which includes software development as well as outsourcing. It generated over $1.2 billion in exports in 2018, both from international investors and a significant number of dynamic homegrown enterprises. Serbia is one of the countries with the highest proportion of women in science. Among the scientific institutes operating in Serbia, the largest are the Mihajlo Pupin Institute and Vinča Nuclear Institute, both in Belgrade. The Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts is a learned society promoting science and arts from its inception in 1841.
The Ministry of Health determines the healthcare policy and adopts standards for the work of the healthcare service. The Ministry is also in charge of the health care system, health insurance, preservation and improvement of health of citizens, health inspection, supervision over the work of the healthcare service and other tasks in the field of healthcare.
The Institute of Public Health of Serbia "Dr Milan Jovanović Batut" is responsible for medical statistics, epidemiology and hygiene. This central, tertiary institution manages and coordinates a dense network of municipal and regional Centres of Public Health that provide epidemiology and hygiene services at primary and secondary levels. The National Health Insurance Fund finances the functioning of health care at all levels, and also provides and implements the compulsory health insurance.
The University Clinical Centre of Serbia spreads over 34 hectares in Belgrade and consists of about 50 buildings. With 3,150 beds, it is considered to have the most beds in Europe.
Other important medical centres include Clinical Center of Vojvodina, Clinical Centre of Kragujevac, Clinical Centre of Niš, Military Medical Academy and others.
Serbia has five cultural monuments inscribed in the list of UNESCO World Heritage: the early medieval capital Stari Ras (including three nearby medieval monasteries: Sopoćani, Đurđevi Stupovi, and the Church of Saint Peter); the 12th-century Studenica monastery; the Roman complex of Gamzigrad; medieval tombstones Stećci; and finally the endangered Medieval Monuments in Kosovo (the monasteries of Visoki Dečani, Our Lady of Ljeviš, Gračanica and Patriarchal Monastery of Peć).
There are four literary works on UNESCO's Memory of the World International Register: the 12th-century Miroslav Gospel, the electrical engineer and inventor Nikola Tesla's archive, the telegram of Austria-Hungary's declaration of war on Serbia, and the 1st Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement archives. The slava (patron saint veneration), kolo (traditional folk dance), singing to the accompaniment of the gusle, Zlakusa pottery, slivovitz (plum brandy) and naïve painting practices of Kovačica are inscribed on UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage Lists. The Ministry of Culture and Information is tasked with preserving the nation's cultural heritage and overseeing its development, with further activities undertaken by local governments.
Serbian monasteries were under the influence of Byzantine art, particularly after the fall of Constantinople in 1204 when many Byzantine artists fled to Serbia. The monasteries include Studenica (built around 1190), which was a model for such later monasteries as Mileševa, Sopoćani, Žiča, Gračanica and Visoki Dečani. Numerous monuments and cultural sites were destroyed at various stages of Serbian history, including destruction in Kosovo. In the late 14th and the 15th centuries, an autochthonous architectural style known as Morava style evolved in the area around Morava Valley. A characteristic of this style was the wealthy decoration of the frontal church walls. Examples of this include Manasija, Ravanica and Kalenić monasteries.
Frescos include White Angel (Mileševa monastery), Crucifixion (Studenica monastery) and Dormition of the Virgin (Sopoćani).
The country is dotted with many well-preserved medieval fortifications and castles such as Smederevo Fortress (largest lowland fortress in Europe), Golubac Fortress, Maglič, Soko grad, Belgrade Fortress, Ostrvica and Ram Fortress.
Under Ottoman occupation, Serbian art was virtually non-existent outside the lands ruled by the Habsburg monarchy. Traditional Serbian art showed Baroque influences at the end of the 18th century as shown in the works of Nikola Nešković, Teodor Kračun, Zaharije Orfelin and Jakov Orfelin. Serbian painting showed the influence of Biedermeier and Neoclassicism as seen in works by Konstantin Danil, Arsenije Teodorović and Pavel Đurković. Many painters followed the artistic trends set in the 19th century Romanticism, notably Đura Jakšić, Stevan Todorović, Katarina Ivanović and Novak Radonić. Serbian painters of the first half of the 20th century include Paja Jovanović and Uroš Predić of Realism, Cubist Sava Šumanović, Milena Pavlović-Barili and Nadežda Petrović of Impressionism, Expressionist Milan Konjović. Painters of the second half of 20th century include Marko Čelebonović, Petar Lubarda, Milo Milunović, Ljubomir Popović and Vladimir Veličković.
Anastas Jovanović was one of the earliest photographers in the world. Marina Abramović is a performance artist. Pirot carpet is a traditional handicraft in Serbia.
There are around 170 museums in Serbia, including the National Museum of Serbia, founded in 1844, houses one of the largest art collections in the Balkans. Other art museums include the Museum of Contemporary Art in Belgrade, the Museum of Vojvodina and the Gallery of Matica Srpska in Novi Sad.
There are 551 public libraries, the largest of which are the National Library of Serbia in Belgrade with about 6 million items, and Matica Srpska (the oldest matica and Serbian cultural institution, founded in 1826) in Novi Sad with nearly 3.5 million volumes. In 2010, there were 10,989 books and brochures published. The book publishing market is dominated by several major publishers such as Laguna and Vulkan. The industry's centrepiece event, annual Belgrade Book Fair, is the most visited cultural event in Serbia with 203,350 visitors in 2024. The highlight of the literary scene is awarding of NIN Prize, given every January since 1954 for the best newly published novel in Serbian.
Medieval authors include Saint Sava, Jefimija, Stefan Lazarević, Constantine of Kostenets and others. Under Ottoman occupation, when Serbia was not part of the European Renaissance, the tradition of oral story-telling through epic poetry was inspired by the Kosovo battle and folk tales rooted in Slavic mythology. Serbian epic poetry in those times was seen as the most effective way in preserving the national identity. (2026). 9780804780292, Stanford University Press. ISBN 9780804780292 The oldest known, entirely fictional poems, make up the Non-historic cycle, which is followed by poems inspired by events before, during and after the Battle of Kosovo. Folk ballads include The Death of the Mother of the Jugović Family and Hasanaginica (1646), translated into European languages by Goethe, Walter Scott, Pushkin and Mérimée. A tale from Serbian folklore is The Nine Peahens and the Golden Apples. Volksmärchen der Serben: Der goldene Apfelbaum und die neun Pfauinnen, on zeno.org.
Baroque trends in Serbian literature emerged in the late 17th century. Baroque-influenced authors include Gavril Stefanović Venclović, Jovan Rajić, Zaharije Orfelin and Andrija Zmajević. Dositej Obradović was a prominent figure of the Age of Enlightenment, while Jovan Sterija Popović was a Classicism writer whose works also contained elements of Romanticism. In the era of national revival, in the first half of the 19th century, Vuk Stefanović Karadžić collected Serbian folk literature, and reformed the Serbian language and spelling, paving the way for Serbian Romanticism. The first half of the 19th century was dominated by Romanticist writers, including Petar II Petrović-Njegoš, Branko Radičević, Đura Jakšić, Jovan Jovanović Zmaj and Laza Kostić, while the second half of the century was marked by Literary realism writers such as Milovan Glišić, Laza Lazarević, Simo Matavulj, Stevan Sremac, Vojislav Ilić, Branislav Nušić, Radoje Domanović and Borisav Stanković.
The 20th century was dominated by the prose writers Meša Selimović ( Death and the Dervish), Miloš Crnjanski ( Migrations), Isidora Sekulić ( The Chronicle of a Small Town Cemetery), Branko Ćopić ( Eagles Fly Early), Borislav Pekić ( The Time of Miracles), Danilo Kiš ( The Encyclopedia of the Dead), Dobrica Ćosić ( The Roots), Aleksandar Tišma ( The Use of Man), Milorad Pavić and others. Notable poets include Milan Rakić, Jovan Dučić, Vladislav Petković Dis, Rastko Petrović, Stanislav Vinaver, Dušan Matić, Branko Miljković, Vasko Popa, Oskar Davičo, Miodrag Pavlović, and Stevan Raičković.
Pavić is a 21st-century Serbian author whose Dictionary of the Khazars has been translated into 38 languages. Contemporary authors include David Albahari, Svetislav Basara, Goran Petrović, Gordana Kuić, Vuk Drašković and Vladislav Bajac. Serbian comics emerged in the 1930s and the medium remains popular today.
Ivo Andrić ( The Bridge on the Drina) is a Serbian author who won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1961. Another writer was Desanka Maksimović, who for seven decades was the leading lady of Yugoslav poetry.
Traditional Serbian music includes various kinds of bagpipes, , Blowing horn, , , psalteries, drums and cymbals. The kolo is the traditional collective folk dance, which has Serbian dances throughout the regions. The most popular are those from Užice and Morava region. Sung epic poetry has been an integral part of Serbian and Balkan music for centuries. In the highlands of Serbia these long poems are typically accompanied on a one-string fiddle called the gusle, and concern themselves with themes from history and mythology. There are records of gusle being played at the court of the 13th-century king Stefan the First-Crowned.
Balkan Brass, or truba ("trumpet") is a popular genre, especially in Central and Southern Serbia where Balkan Brass originated. There are two main varieties of this genre, one from Western Serbia and the other from Southern Serbia, with brass musician Boban Marković being one of the most respected names in the world of modern brass band bandleaders.
The most popular music festivals are Guča Trumpet Festival, with over 300,000 annual visitors, and Exit in Novi Sad (won the Best Major Festival award at the European Festivals Awards for 2013 and 2017.), with 200,000 visitors in 2013. Other festivals include Nišville Jazz Festival in Niš and Gitarijada rock festival in Zaječar.
Serbian pop artist Željko Joksimović won second place at the 2004 Eurovision Song Contest and Marija Šerifović won the 2007 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Molitva", and Serbia was the host of the 2008 edition of the contest. Pop singers include Zdravko Čolić, Vlado Georgiev, Aleksandra Radović, Jelena Tomašević and Teya Dora among others.
Serbian rock was part of the former Yugoslav rock scene during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s. During the 1990s and 2000s, the popularity of rock music declined in Serbia, and although several major mainstream acts managed to sustain their popularity, an underground and independent music scene developed. The 2000s saw a revival of the mainstream scene and the appearance of a large number of notable acts. Serbian rock acts include Atheist Rap, Bajaga i Instruktori, Đorđe Balašević, Bjesovi, Block Out, Crni Biseri, Darkwood Dub, Disciplina Kičme, Elipse, Ekatarina Velika, Električni Orgazam, Eva Braun, Galija, Generacija 5, Goblini, Idoli, Kanda, Kodža i Nebojša, Kerber, Korni Grupa, Laboratorija Zvuka, Slađana Milošević, Neverne Bebe, Obojeni Program, Orthodox Celts, Partibrejkers, Pekinška Patka, Piloti, Riblja Čorba, Ritam Nereda, Rambo Amadeus, S.A.R.S., Siluete, S Vremena Na Vreme, Šarlo Akrobata, Pop Mašina, Smak, U Škripcu, Van Gogh, YU Grupa, Zana and others. in Novi Sad, proclaimed as the Best Major European festival at the EU Festival Awards.]]
Folk music in its original form has been a prominent music style since World War I following the early success of Sofka Nikolić. The music has been further promoted by Danica Obrenić, Anđelija Milić, Nada Mamula, and during the 60s and 70s with performers like Silvana Armenulić, Toma Zdravković, Lepa Lukić, Vasilija Radojčić, Vida Pavlović and Gordana Stojićević.
Turbo-folk music is a subgenre that was developed in Serbia in the late 1980s and the beginning of the 1990s and has since enjoyed an immense popularity through acts of Dragana Mirković, Zorica Brunclik, Šaban Šaulić, Ana Bekuta, Sinan Sakić, Vesna Zmijanac, Mile Kitić, Snežana Đurišić, Šemsa Suljaković, and Nada Topčagić. It is a blend of folk music with Pop music and Dance music elements and can be seen as a result of the urbanisation of folk music. In recent years, turbo-folk has featured even more pop music elements, and some of the performers have been labeled as pop-folk. The most famous among them are Ceca (often considered to be the biggest music star of Serbia), Jelena Karleuša, Aca Lukas, Seka Aleksić, Dara Bubamara, Indira Radić, Saša Matić, Viki Miljković, Stoja and Lepa Brena, arguably the most prominent performer of former Yugoslavia.
The country has a rich cinematic legacy. Serbia's film scene is one of the most dynamic smaller European cinemas. The film industry is heavily subsidised by the government, mainly through grants approved by the Film Centre of Serbia. As of 2025, there were 36 feature films produced in Serbia. There are 98 operating cinemas in the country, with total attendance reaching more than 4 million. A comparatively high percentage of 20% of total tickets sold were for domestic films. Modern PFI Studios located in Šimanovci is nowadays Serbia's only major film studio complex. The Yugoslav Film Archive used to be former Yugoslavia's and now is Serbia's national film archive – with over 100 thousand film prints, it is among the five largest film archives in the world.
Famous Serbian filmmaker Emir Kusturica won two Golden Palm for Best Feature Film at the Cannes Film Festival, for When Father Was Away on Business in 1985 and then again for Underground in 1995; he has also won a Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Arizona Dream and a Silver Lion at the Venice Film Festival for Black Cat, White Cat. Other renowned directors include Dušan Makavejev, Želimir Žilnik (Golden Berlin Bear winner), Aleksandar Petrović, Živojin Pavlović, Goran Paskaljević, Goran Marković, Srđan Dragojević, Srdan Golubović and Mila Turajlić among others. Serbian-American screenwriter Steve Tesich won the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay in 1979.
Prominent movie stars in Serbia have left a celebrated heritage in the cinematography of Yugoslavia as well. Notable mentions are Zoran Radmilović, Pavle Vuisić, Ljubiša Samardžić, Olivera Marković, Mija Aleksić, Miodrag Petrović Čkalja, Ružica Sokić, Velimir Bata Živojinović, Danilo Bata Stojković, Seka Sablić, Dragan Nikolić, Mira Stupica, Bora Todorović, Nebojša Glogovac, Miloš Biković and others. Milena Dravić was one of the most celebrated actresses in Serbian cinematography, winning the Best Actress Award at the Cannes Film Festival in 1980.
According to EBU research in 2018, Serbs on average watch five and a half hours of television per day, making it the second highest average in Europe. There are seven nationwide free-to-air television channels, with public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) operating three (RTS1, RTS2 and RTS3) and private broadcasters operating four (RTV Pink, Prva, Happy TV, and O2). There are 28 regional television channels and 74 local television channels. Besides terrestrial channels there are dozens of Serbian television channels available only on cable or satellite. These include regional news N1, commercial channel Nova S, and regional sports channels Sport Klub and Arena Sport, among others.
There are over 300 radio stations in Serbia. Out of these, six are radio stations with national coverage, including two of public broadcaster Radio Television of Serbia (Radio Belgrade and Radio Belgrade 2/Radio Belgrade 3) and four private ones (Radio S1, Radio S2, Play Radio, and Radio Hit FM). Also, there are 34 regional stations and 207 local stations.
There are 305 newspapers published in Serbia of which 12 are daily newspapers. Dailies Politika and Danas are Serbia's papers of record, the former being the oldest newspaper in the Balkans, founded in 1904. Highest circulation newspapers are tabloids Večernje Novosti, Blic, Kurir, and Informer, all with more than 100,000 copies sold. There is one daily newspaper devoted to sports ( Sportski žurnal), one business daily ( Privredni pregled), two regional newspapers ( Dnevnik published in Novi Sad and Narodne novine from Niš), and one minority-language daily ( Magyar Szo in Hungarian, published in Subotica).
There are 1,351 magazines published in the country. These include: weekly NIN, Vreme and Nedeljnik; popular science magazine Politikin Zabavnik; women's magazine Lepota & Zdravlje; auto magazine SAT revija; and IT magazine Svet kompjutera. In addition, there is a wide selection of Serbian editions of international magazines, such as Cosmopolitan, Elle, Men's Health, National Geographic, Le Monde diplomatique, Playboy, and Hello!, among others.
The main news agencies are Tanjug, Beta and Fonet.
, out of 432 web-portals (mainly on the .rs domain) the most visited are online editions of printed dailies Blic and Kurir, news web-portal B92 and classifieds KupujemProdajem.
Staples of the Serbian diet include bread, meat, fruits, vegetables, and dairy products. Bread plays an important role in Serbian cuisine and can be found in religious rituals. A traditional Serbian welcome is to offer bread and salt to guests. Meat is widely consumed, as is fish. The southern Serbian city of Leskovac is host to Roštiljijada, considered the biggest barbecue festival in the Balkans.
Other Serbian specialties include ćevapčići (grilled and seasoned caseless sausages made from minced meat), pljeskavica (grilled spiced meat patty made from a mixture of pork, beef and lamb), gibanica (cheese pie), burek (baked pastry made from a thin flaky dough that is stuffed with meat, cheese or vegetables), sarma (stuffed cabbage), punjena paprika (stuffed pepper), moussaka (casserole made from minced meat, eggs, and potatoes), Karađorđeva šnicla (veal or pork schnitzel that is stuffed with kajmak), đuveč (meat and vegetable stew), pasulj (bean soup), podvarak (roast meat with sauerkraut), ajvar (roasted red pepper spread), kajmak (dairy product similar to clotted cream), čvarci (variant of pork rinds), proja (cornbread) and kačamak (maize porridge).
Serbians claim their country as the birthplace of rakia ( rakija), a highly alcoholic drink primarily distilled from fruit. Rakia in various forms is found throughout the Balkans, notably in Bulgaria, Croatia, Slovenia, Montenegro, Hungary and Turkey. Slivovitz ( šljivovica), a plum brandy, is a type of rakia which is considered the national drink of Serbia. In 2021, Serbia's sljivovica was added to the United Nations Intangible Cultural Heritage List as a "cherished tradition to be preserved by humanity".
Serbian wines are produced in 22 different geographical regions, with white wine dominating the total amount. Besides rakia and wine, beer is a very popular alcoholic beverage in the country. Pale lagers are currently and have been the traditional beer choice for Serbians. The most popular domestic brands of beer are Jelen, followed by Lav.
As in the rest of the former Yugoslavia, coffee drinking is an important cultural and social practice and Serbian coffee (a local variant of Turkish coffee) is the most commonly consumed non-alcoholic beverage.
Football is the most popular sport in Serbia, with the Football Association of Serbia being the largest sporting association, with 146,845 registered players. Dragan Džajić was recognised as "the best Serbian player of all time" by the association. More recently, players like Nemanja Vidić, Dejan Stanković, Branislav Ivanović, Aleksandar Kolarov, Nemanja Matić, Dušan Tadić and Aleksandar Mitrović have achieved significant success in the UEFA Champions League, boosting Serbia's reputation as a leading exporter of footballers. The national team has qualified for three of the last four FIFA World Cups but lacks significant success. Serbia's two main football clubs, Red Star Belgrade and FK Partizan, have storied histories, with Red Star winning the 1990–91 European Cup and Partizan reaching the 1965–66 European Cup final. Their rivalry is known as the "Eternal Derby".
The country is a powerhouse in world basketball, with the men's national team winning two World Championships, three EuroBasket titles, two Olympic silver medals, and a bronze medal in 2024. The women's team has won two EuroBasket Women titles and an Olympic bronze medal. Serbia's men's 3x3 team has won six FIBA 3x3 World Cups and five FIBA 3x3 Europe Cups. A total of 34 Serbian players have played in the NBA over the last three decades, including Nikola Jokić, a three-time NBA MVP and 2023 NBA Finals MVP. The "Serbian coaching school" has produced many of Europe's most successful basketball coaches, including Željko Obradović, who has won a record 9 Euroleague titles. KK Partizan won the 1992 EuroLeague, and KK Crvena zvezda won the 1974 FIBA Saporta Cup.
The Serbia men's national water polo team is one of the most successful, with three Olympic gold medals, three World Championships, and seven European Championships. VK Partizan has won seven Champions League titles.
The recent success of Serbian tennis players, especially Novak Djokovic, who holds a record 24 Grand Slam singles titles, has led to a surge in the sport's popularity in Serbia. Djokovic has held the No. 1 ATP ranking for a record 428 weeks and achieved a Career Super Slam with his Olympic gold in 2024. Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković and Nenad Zimonjić have also been ranked No. 1 in the WTA rankings. The men's national tennis team won the 2010 Davis Cup and 2020 ATP Cup.
Serbia's men's national volleyball team won the 2000 Olympic gold medal, three European Championships, and the 2016 FIVB Volleyball World League. The women's team has won two World Championships, three European Championships, and two Olympic medals.
Serbian chess players excelled from 1950 to 1980, winning 15 Olympic medals. The men's team won the 2023 European Team Competition, and women's clubs have won the European Champions Cup five times. Svetozar Gligorić and Ljubomir Ljubojević were among the world's best players outside the USSR.
Notable Serbian athletes include sport shooters Jasna Šekarić and Damir Mikec, handball player Svetlana Kitić, volleyball player Nikola Grbić, swimmer Milorad Čavić, track and field athlete Ivana Španović, wrestler Davor Štefanek, and taekwondoist Milica Mandić.
target="_blank" rel="nofollow"> Serbia. The World Factbook. Central Intelligence Agency.
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