North Macedonia

• mountainous with deep basins and valleys;
• three large lakes, each divided by a frontier line;
• country bisected by the Vardar River

mean elevation:

741 m

elevation extremes:

50 m lowest point: Vardar River; 2764 highest point: Golem Korab (Maja e Korabit)

party to:

Air Pollution, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Climate Change-Kyoto Protocol, Desertification, Endangered Species, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Ozone Layer Protection, Wetlands

signed, but not ratified:

none of the selected agreements

noun:

Macedonian(s)

adjective:

Macedonian

0-14 years:

16.24% (male 177,719 /female 166,374)

15-24 years:

13.41% (male 147,292 /female 136,851)

25-54 years:

44.55% (male 478,851 /female 465,058)

55-64 years:

12.43% (male 129,731 /female 133,645)

65 years and over:

13.38% (male 123,101 /female 160,323) (2018 est.)

total dependency ratio:

41.6 (2015 est.)

youth dependency ratio:

23.8 (2015 est.)

elderly dependency ratio:

17.7 (2015 est.)

potential support ratio:

5.6 (2015 est.)

at birth:

1.08 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

0-14 years:

1.07 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

15-24 years:

1.07 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

25-54 years:

1.03 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

55-64 years:

0.96 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

65 years and over:

0.75 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

total population:

0.99 male(s)/female (2017 est.)

name:

Skopje

geographic coordinates:

42 00 N, 21 26 E

time difference:

UTC+1 (6 hours ahead of Washington, DC, during Standard Time)

daylight saving time:

+1hr, begins last Sunday in March; ends last Sunday in October

history:

several previous; latest adopted 17 November 1991, effective 20 November 1991 (2018)

amendments:

• proposed by the president of the republic, by the government, by signed agreement of at least 30 members of the Assembly, or by petition of at least 150,000 citizens;
• draft amendments require approval by majority vote of Assembly members, followed by public debate;
• passage of final amendment to include public comments requires two-thirds majority vote by the Assembly;
• amended several times, last in 2011 (2018)

citizenship by birth:

no

citizenship by descent only:

at least one parent must be a citizen of Macedonia

dual citizenship recognized:

no

residency requirement for naturalization:

8 years

highest courts:

Supreme Court (consists of 22 judges); Constitutional Court (consists of 9 judges)

judge selection and term of office:

• Supreme Court judges nominated by the Judicial Council, a 7-member body of legal professionals, and appointed by the Assembly;
• judge tenure NA;
• Constitutional Court judges appointed by the Assembly for nonrenewable, 9-year terms

subordinate courts:

Courts of Appeal; Basic Courts

chief of state:

President Gjorge IVANOV (since 12 May 2009)

head of government:

Prime Minister Zoran ZAEV (since 31 May 2017)

cabinet:

• Council of Ministers elected by the Assembly by simple majority vote;
• note - after the December 2016 election, VMRO-DPMNE won a plurality of the seats but failed to gather a majority in the Assembly to establish a government;
• SDSM, DUI, and the Alliance for Albanians formed an alliance;
• however, the president refused to give the SDSM leader the mandate to form a new government;
• VMRO-DPMNE blocked the election of a Speaker of the Assembly until late April 2017, when a majority of Assembly members elected Talat XHAFERI as speaker;
• in response, demonstrators disrupted the Assembly building, attacking journalists and Assembly members;
• President Gjorge IVANOV eventually gave the mandate to SDSM’s Zoran ZAEV to form a new coalition government, and the Assembly confirmed the Cabinet on 31 May 2017

elections/appointments:

• president directly elected by absolute majority popular vote in 2 rounds if needed for a 5-year term (eligible for a second term);
• election last held on 13 and 27 April 2014 (next to be held in 2019);
• following legislative elections, the leader of the majority party or majority coalition is usually elected prime minister by the Assembly

election results:

Gjorge IVANOV reelected president in second round; percent of vote - Gjorge IVANOV (independent) 55.3%, Stevo PENDAROVSKI (SDSM) 41.1%, other 3.6%

• Alliance for Albanians or AfA [Ziadin SELA]
• Besa Movement [Bilal KASAMI]
• Democratic Party of Albanians or PDSh [Menduh THACI]
• Democratic Union for Integration or BDI [Ali AHMETI]
• Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization - Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity or VMRO-DPMNE [Hristijan MICKOSKI]
• Liberal Democratic Party or LDP [Goran MILEVSKI]
• Social Democratic Union of Macedonia or SDSM [Zoran ZAEV]
• Socialist Party of Macedonia or SPM [Ljubislav IVANOV-DZINGO]

note: during the 2016 parliamentary elections SDSM and VMRO-DPMNE each led coalitions

chief of mission:

Ambassador Vasko NAUMOVSKI (since 18 November 2014)

chancery:

2129 Wyoming Avenue NW, Washington, DC 20008

telephone:

[1] (202) 667-0501

FAX:

[1] (202) 667-2131

consulate(s) general:

Chicago, Detroit, New York

chief of mission:

Ambassador Jess L. BAILY (since 12 February 2015)

embassy:

Str. Samoilova, Nr. 21, 1000 Skopje

mailing address:

American Embassy Skopje, US Department of State, 7120 Skopje Place, Washington, DC 20521-7120 (pouch)

telephone:

[389] (2) 310-2000

FAX:

[389] (2) 310-2499

• a yellow sun (the Sun of Liberty) with eight broadening rays extending to the edges of the red field;
• the red and yellow colors have long been associated with Macedonia

name:

"Denes nad Makedonija" (Today Over Macedonia)

lyrics/music:

Vlado MALESKI/Todor SKALOVSKI

note: written in 1943 and adopted in 1991, the song previously served as the anthem of the Socialist Republic of Macedonia while part of Yugoslavia

agriculture:

16.2%

industry:

29.2%

services:

54.5% (2017 est.)

lowest 10%:

25% (2015 est.)

highest 10%:

25% (2015 est.)

• foodstuffs, beverages, tobacco;
• textiles, miscellaneous manufactures, iron, steel;
• automotive parts

general assessment:

• being part of the EU pre-accession process has led to a stronger teledensity with closer regulatory framework, independent regulators and administrative ties with the the European Commission (EC) have led to progress;
• broadband services are widely available;
• more customers moving to fibre networks;
• 2 mobile network operators;
• end of roaming tariffs (2017)

domestic:

fixed-line 17 per 100 and mobile-cellular 101 per 100 subscriptions (2017)

international:

country code - 389 (2017)

• public service TV broadcaster Macedonian Radio and Television operates 3 national terrestrial TV channels and 2 satellite TV channels;
• additionally, there are 10 regional TV stations that broadcast nationally using terrestrial transmitters, 54 TV channels with concession for cable TV, 9 regional TV stations with concessions for cable TV;
• 4 satellite TV channels broadcasting on a national level, 21 local commercial TV channels, and a large number of cable operators that offer domestic and international programming;
• the public radio broadcaster operates over 3 stations;
• there are 4 privately owned radio stations that broadcast nationally;
• 17 regional radio stations, and 49 local commercial radio stations (2018)

total:

925 km (2017)

standard gauge:

925 km 1.435-m gauge (313 km electrified) (2017)

total:

14,182 km (includes 290 km of expressways) (2017)

paved:

9,633 km (2017)

unpaved:

4,549 km (2017)

stateless persons:

590 (2017)

note: 481,637 estimated refugee and migrant arrivals (January 2015- December 2018); Macedonia is predominantly a transit country and hosts fewer than 50 refugees and asylum seekers as of October 2017; 547 migrant arrivals in 2017

• major transshipment point for Southwest Asian heroin and hashish;
• minor transit point for South American cocaine destined for Europe;
• although not a financial center and most criminal activity is thought to be domestic, money laundering is a problem due to a mostly cash-based economy and weak enforcement