Slovenia is a small country in south-east Central Europe. It sits between Austria to the north and Croatia to the south; Italy and Hungary are neighbours too. It used to be part of Yugoslavia, then became its own country in 1991, and it joined the European Union in 2004. About two million people live there. The capital is Ljubljana. A lot of it is Alpine: mountains, lakes, and a short bit of coast. English speakers constantly mix it up with Slovakia, which is a different country (north of Hungary, once joined to the Czech lands). The names look alike because both come from old words for Slavic people, but the places, capitals, and histories are not the same. People from Slovenia are Slovenian (or Slovene); the country itself is Slovenia, not “Slovenian.”