North Macedonia

North Macedonia is a country in Europe.

It has no sea. It has tall mountains and green valleys. A river called the Vardar flows through it. The capital city is Skopje.

North Macedonia is a small country in the Balkans, the big peninsula in southeastern Europe. It is landlocked, which means it has no sea coast. Most of the land is mountains, with broad, fertile valleys between them.

The Vardar River flows through the middle of the country, and the capital, Skopje, stands on its banks. In the southwest lie two big lakes, Ohrid and Prespa, and Lake Ohrid is very old. About 1.8 million people lived in North Macedonia in 2023, and most of them speak Macedonian or Albanian.

North Macedonia is a landlocked country in the south-central Balkans. It occupies about two-fifths of the wider geographical region of Macedonia; the rest of that region belongs to Greece and Bulgaria. Britannica stresses its position at a junction of routes: the north–south corridor from the Danube to the Aegean along the Morava and Vardar valleys, and the old east–west trade routes linking the Black Sea and Istanbul with the Adriatic.

The land is largely mountainous and is crossed from north to south by active fault lines; about nine-tenths of it drains to the Aegean through the Vardar basin. The 2021 census counted 1,836,713 people, and the State Statistical Office's estimate for 2023 was 1,826,247. Skopje became the capital of the People's Republic of Macedonia within Yugoslavia in 1945 and of the independent state in 1991.

North Macedonia has many tall mountains.

The tallest is called Korab. Lake Ohrid is a very old lake. It has been there for millions of years. Sometimes the ground shakes in an earthquake.

Many of North Macedonia's peaks rise above the tree line, at about 2,000 meters. The tallest, Mount Korab on the border with Albania, reaches 2,764 meters. The Vardar River and the streams that join it carry water from about nine-tenths of the country southeast to the Aegean Sea.

The ground here moves: active fault lines cross the country, and earthquakes happen often. Movements of Earth's crust also formed Lake Ohrid and Lake Prespa, and Lake Ohrid has existed for about two to three million years. January averages about 0 °C, and July is warm, about 20 to 25 °C.

Geologically, North Macedonia is mainly heavily folded ancient metamorphic rock, eroded in the west to reveal older granites, with younger sedimentary deposits in the center. Active fault lines run north to south; the most severe recent earthquake struck Debar in 1967, and Skopje was largely destroyed in 1963. Crustal movement created the tectonic lakes Prespa and Ohrid, as well as mineral and hot springs. UNESCO describes Lake Ohrid as deep and ancient, in continuous existence for about two to three million years.

The highest point is Korab on the Albanian border: the Parks Dinarides page for Mavrovo National Park gives Veliki Korab 2,764 m, while Britannica gives 2,752 m. About nine-tenths of the country drains to the Aegean through the Vardar; the rest drains north via the Crni Drim toward the Adriatic, often through narrow gorges that suit hydroelectric dams. The climate joins Mediterranean and continental zones, with a cold northerly wind called the vardarec. January averages about 0 °C, July about 20–25 °C, and annual precipitation is only about 500–700 mm, wettest in October and November.

Brown bears and wolves live in the mountain forests.

Lynx live there too. Golden eagles fly high above the hills. Lake Ohrid has fish that live nowhere else.

The forests of the mountainous northwest are home to wild pigs, wolves, bears and lynx. In the dry, warm summers there are plenty of insects, especially grasshoppers, and many small lizards. Mavrovo, a national park set up in 1949, is home to the brown bear, the golden eagle and endangered animals such as the lynx, and visitors can also watch for deer and chamois.

Lake Ohrid is a refuge for more than 200 kinds of plants and animals that live only in this lake. They include snails, tiny crustaceans and 17 kinds of fish found nowhere else, two of them trout.

In the mountainous northwest, deciduous woodland on the lower slopes gives way to conifers up to about 2,000 m, and some forest has been cleared for rough summer pasture. Britannica lists wild pigs, wolves, bears and lynx in these forests, and notes that the dry, warm summers bring abundant insects, especially grasshoppers, and numerous small lizards. Mavrovo National Park, declared in 1949 to protect the forest around the Mavrovo valley, records 12 amphibian, 12 reptile, 140 bird and 38 mammal species, including the brown bear, the golden eagle and the endangered lynx, along with wolves, wild boar, deer and chamois.

Lake Ohrid's oligotrophic (nutrient-poor) waters hold more than 200 species found only in the lake, among them algae, turbellarian flatworms, snails, crustaceans and 17 endemic fish, including two species of trout. UNESCO describes many of them as relict species dating from the Tertiary period, and the lake also supports rich birdlife.

About 1.8 million people live in North Macedonia.

Many speak Macedonian. Many others speak Albanian. People eat burek, a flaky pastry. Ajvar is a sauce made from sweet red peppers.

About 1.8 million people lived in North Macedonia in 2023. In the early 2000s, nearly two-thirds of people described themselves as Macedonians and about a quarter as Albanians, and Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks and Vlachs live there too. Macedonian, written in the Cyrillic alphabet, is the main official language, and Albanian is official in places where many people speak it.

The food mixes Balkan, Mediterranean and Turkish flavors. Burek is a flaky pastry often filled with cheese, meat or spinach, tavče gravče is baked beans, and ajvar is a sauce of sweet red peppers. Folk music and folk dancing are still popular, along with rock and pop.

The State Statistical Office estimated the population at 1,826,247 in 2023, after the 2021 census counted 1,836,713. Britannica reports that at the start of the 21st century nearly two-thirds of people identified as Macedonians, who generally trace their descent to Slavic tribes that arrived between the 6th and 8th centuries. Albanians, about a quarter of the population in the 2002 census, are concentrated in the northwest and form majorities in some 16 of the 80 municipalities. Smaller minorities include Turks, Roma, Serbs, Bosniaks and Vlachs (Aromani); most Vlachs live in the old mountain town of Kruševo. About three-fifths of the population was urban in the early 21st century.

Macedonian, a Slavic language closely related to Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian, is written in Cyrillic and was officially recognized only in 1945. A constitutional amendment made Albanian an official language in communities where at least 20 percent speak it. Most Slavic speakers are Orthodox Christians, and about one-third of the population is Muslim. The cuisine joins Balkan and Mediterranean fare with dishes of Turkish origin such as kebapčinja and burek, alongside ajvar, tavče gravče and šopska salata.