The country maintains a combination of a market economy with a comprehensive social security system, providing citizens with universal health care, free education, one of the lowest retirement age in Europe and one of the longest paid parental leaves in the OECD.

[16] Slovakia is a member of the European Union, the Eurozone, the Schengen Area, the United Nations, NATO, CERN, the OECD, the WTO, the Council of Europe, the Visegrád Group, and the OSCE.

The arrival of tribes from Thrace disrupted the people of the Kalenderberg culture, who lived in the hamlets located on the plain (Sereď) and in the hill forts like Molpír, near Smolenice, in the Little Carpathians.

Relatively depopulated areas soon caught the interest of emerging Celtic tribes, who advanced from the south towards the north, following the Slovak rivers, peacefully integrating into the remnants of the local population.

From 2 CE, the expanding Roman Empire established and maintained a series of outposts around and just south of the Danube, the largest of which were known as Carnuntum (whose remains are on the main road halfway between Vienna and Bratislava) and Brigetio (present-day Szőny at the Slovak-Hungarian border).

Near the northernmost line of the Roman hinterlands, the Limes Romanus, there existed the winter camp of Laugaricio (modern-day Trenčín) where the Auxiliary of Legion II fought and prevailed in a decisive battle over the Germanic Quadi tribe in 179 CE during the Marcomannic Wars.

However, in medieval times the area of Slovakia was characterised by German and Jewish immigration, burgeoning towns, construction of numerous stone castles, and the cultivation of the arts.

[43] The arrival of German element sometimes proved a problem for the autochthonous Slovaks (and even Hungarians in the broader Hungary), since they often quickly gained most power in medieval towns, only to later refuse to share it.

[46] They defied the Catholic Habsburgs and sought protection from neighbouring Transylvania, a rival continuation of the Magyar state that practised religious tolerance and normally had Ottoman backing.

In 1655, the printing press at the Trnava university produced the Jesuit Benedikt Szöllősi's Cantus Catholici, a Catholic hymnal in Slovak that reaffirmed links to the earlier works of Cyril and Methodius.

[12][48][13] Thököly's kuruc rebels from the Principality of Upper Hungary fought alongside the Turks against the Austrians and Poles at the Battle of Vienna of 1683 led by John III Sobieski.

[50] On 18 October 1918, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk, Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Edvard Beneš declared in Washington, D.C. the independence for the territories of Bohemia, Moravia, Silesia, Upper Hungary and Carpathian Ruthenia from the Austro-Hungarian Empire and proclaimed a common state, Czechoslovakia.

After the Munich Agreement and its Vienna Award, Nazi Germany threatened to annex part of Slovakia and allow the remaining regions to be partitioned by Hungary or Poland unless independence was declared.

[59] Under Tiso's government and Hungarian occupation, the vast majority of Slovakia's pre-war Jewish population (between 75,000 and 105,000 individuals including those who perished from the occupied territory) were murdered.

[100] At the beginning of 2009, Slovakia faced energy crisis and declared a state of emergency, after Russia cut gas supplies to Europe via Ukrainian pipelines as part of a price dispute with Ukraine.

[108][109] Thousands of people protested in streets across Slovakia for independent investigation of journalist's murder and a ‘trustworthy’ government in largest demonstrations in the country since the Velvet Revolution.

After a strong economic recovery in 2021, growth slowed down markedly in 2022 and 2023 as a result of the consequences of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, notably the subsequent EU sanctions on Russia and Global energy crisis.

[138] The biodiversity of Slovakia comprises animals (such as annelids, arthropods, molluscs, nematodes and vertebrates), fungi (Ascomycota, Basidiomycota, Chytridiomycota, Glomeromycota and Zygomycota), micro-organisms (including Mycetozoa), and plants.

[140] As the altitude changes, the vegetation associations and animal communities are forming height levels (oak, beech, spruce, scrub pine, alpine meadows and subsoil).

Most executive power lies with the head of government, the prime minister (currently Robert Fico), who is usually the leader of the winning party and who needs to form a majority coalition in the parliament.

The two countries have a long history tracing back to the American Revolutionary War, when a Slovak Major, Ján Ladislav Polerecký, fought alongside George Washington in Yorktowne to win the colonies' independence.

[155] The country has been an active participant in US- and NATO-led military actions and involved in many United Nations peacekeeping military missions: UNPROFOR in the Yugoslavia (1992–1995), UNOMUR in Uganda and Rwanda (1993–1994), UNAMIR in Rwanda (1993-1996), UNTAES in Croatia (1996-1998), UNOMIL in Liberia (1993-1997), MONUA in Angola (1997-1999), SFOR in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1999-2003), OSCE mission in Moldova (1998-2002), OSCE mission in Albania (1999), KFOR in Kosovo (1999-2002), UNGCI in Iraq (2000-2003), UNMEE in Ethiopia and Eritrea (2000-2004), UNMISET in East Timor (2001), EUFOR Concordia in Macedonia (2003), UNAMSIL in Sierra Leone (1999-2005), EU supporting action to African Union in Darfur (2006), Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan (2002-2005), Operation Iraqi Freedom in Iraq (2003-2007) and UNDOF at the borders of Israel and Syria (1998-2008).

[159]According to the European Roma Rights Centre (ERRC), Romani people in Slovakia "endure racism in the job market, housing and education fields and are often subjected to forced evictions, vigilante intimidation, disproportionate levels of police brutality and more subtle forms of discrimination.

In 2024, with a population of only 5 million, it ranked as the 46th richest country with a per capita gross domestic product based on purchasing power parity of $44,081,[164] and the 61st largest economy in the World with a GDP of $140,808 billion.

The OECD in 2017 reported: The Slovak Republic continues exhibiting robust economic performance, with strong growth backed by a sound financial sector, low public debt and high international competitiveness drawing on large inward investment.

Eurostat report also shows that 98.3% of Slovak students in the upper secondary education take on two foreign languages, ranking highly over the average 60.1% in the European Union.

[228] The Programme for International Student Assessment, coordinated by the OECD, currently ranks Slovak secondary education the 30th in the world (placing it just below the United States and just above Spain).

Slovakia is also known for its polyhistors, of whom include Pavol Jozef Šafárik, Matej Bel, Ján Kollár, and its political revolutionaries and reformists, such Milan Rastislav Štefánik and Alexander Dubček.

Traditional Slovak cuisine is based mainly on pork, poultry (chicken is the most widely eaten, followed by duck, goose, and turkey), flour, potatoes, cabbage, and milk products.

[citation needed] In club competitions, only three teams have qualified for the UEFA Champions League Group Stage, namely MFK Košice in 1997–98, FC Artmedia Bratislava in 2005–06 season, and MŠK Žilina in 2010–11.