title: Argentina

text: Major wind currents include the cool Pampero Winds blowing on the flat plains of Patagonia and the Pampas; following the cold front, warm currents blow from the north in middle and late winter, creating mild conditions.


title: Argentina

text: The Sudestada usually moderates cold temperatures but brings very heavy rains, rough seas and coastal flooding. It is most common in late autumn and winter along the central coast and in the Río de la Plata estuary.


title: Argentina

text: The Zonda, a hot dry wind, affects Cuyo and the central Pampas. Squeezed of all moisture during the descent from the Andes, Zonda winds can blow for hours with gusts up to , fueling wildfires and causing damage; between June and November, when the Zonda blows, snowstorms and blizzard ("viento blanco") conditions usually affect higher elevations.


title: Argentina

text: Climate change in Argentina is predicted to have significant effects on the living conditions in Argentina. The climate of Argentina is changing with regards to precipitation patterns and temperatures. The highest increases in the precipitation (from the period 1960–2010) have occurred in the eastern parts of the country. The increase in precipitation has led to more variability in precipitation from year to year in the northern parts of the country, with a higher risk of prolonged droughts, disfavoring agriculture in these regions.


title: Argentina

text: In the 20th century, Argentina experienced significant political turmoil and democratic reversals. Between 1930 and 1976, the armed forces overthrew six governments in Argentina; and the country alternated periods of democracy (1912–1930, 1946–1955, and 1973–1976) with periods of restricted democracy and military rule. Following a transition that began in 1983, full-scale democracy in Argentina was reestablished. Argentina's democracy endured through the 2001–02 crisis and to the present day; it is regarded as more robust than both its pre-1983 predecessors and other democracies in Latin America.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is a federal constitutional republic and representative democracy. The government is regulated by a system of checks and balances defined by the Constitution of Argentina, the country's supreme legal document. The seat of government is the city of Buenos Aires, as designated by Congress. Suffrage is universal, equal, secret and mandatory.


title: Argentina

text: The Legislative branch consists of the bicameral Congress, made up of the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies. The Congress makes federal law, declares war, approves treaties and has the power of the purse and of impeachment, by which it can remove sitting members of the government. The Chamber of Deputies represents the people and has 257 voting members elected to a four-year term. Seats are apportioned among the provinces by population every tenth year. ten provinces have just five deputies while the Buenos Aires Province, being the most populous one, has 70. The Chamber of Senators represents the provinces, has 72 members elected at-large to six-year terms, with each province having three seats; one third of Senate seats are up for election every other year. At least one-third of the candidates presented by the parties must be women.


title: Argentina

text: In the Executive branch, the President is the commander-in-chief of the military, can veto legislative bills before they become law—subject to Congressional override—and appoints the members of the Cabinet and other officers, who administer and enforce federal laws and policies. The President is elected directly by the vote of the people, serves a four-year term and may be elected to office no more than twice in a row.


title: Argentina

text: The Judicial branch includes the Supreme Court and lower federal courts interpret laws and overturn those they find unconstitutional. The Judicial is independent of the Executive and the Legislative. The Supreme Court has seven members appointed by the President—subject to Senate approval—who serve for life. The lower courts' judges are proposed by the Council of Magistracy (a secretariat composed of representatives of judges, lawyers, researchers, the Executive and the Legislative), and appointed by the president on Senate approval.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is a federation of twenty-three provinces and one autonomous city, Buenos Aires. Provinces are divided for administration purposes into departments and municipalities, except for Buenos Aires Province, which is divided into partidos. The City of Buenos Aires is divided into communes.


title: Argentina

text: Provinces hold all the power that they chose not to delegate to the federal government; they must be representative republics and must not contradict the Constitution. Beyond this they are fully autonomous: they enact their own constitutions, freely organize their local governments, and own and manage their natural and financial resources. Some provinces have bicameral legislatures, while others have unicameral ones.


title: Argentina

text: During the War of Independence the main cities and their surrounding countrysides became provinces though the intervention of their cabildos. The Anarchy of the Year XX completed this process, shaping the original thirteen provinces. Jujuy seceded from Salta in 1834, and the thirteen provinces became fourteen.


title: Argentina

text: After seceding for a decade, Buenos Aires accepted the 1853 Constitution of Argentina in 1861, and was made a federal territory in 1880.


title: Argentina

text: An 1862 law designated as national territories those under federal control but outside the frontiers of the provinces. In 1884 they served as bases for the establishment of the governorates of Misiones, Formosa, Chaco, La Pampa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut, Santa Cruz and Tierra del Fuego. The agreement about a frontier dispute with Chile in 1900 created the National Territory of Los Andes; its lands were incorporated into Jujuy, Salta and Catamarca in 1943.


title: Argentina

text: La Pampa and Chaco became provinces in 1951. Misiones did so in 1953, and Formosa, Neuquén, Río Negro, Chubut and Santa Cruz, in 1955. The last national territory, Tierra del Fuego, became the Tierra del Fuego, Antártida e Islas del Atlántico Sur Province in 1990. It has three components, although two are nominal because they are not under Argentine sovereignty. The first is the Argentine part of Tierra del Fuego; the second is an area of Antarctica claimed by Argentina that overlaps with similar areas claimed by the UK and Chile; the third comprises the two disputed British Overseas Territories of the Falkland Islands and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands.


title: Argentina

text: Foreign policy is handled by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, International Trade and Worship, which answers to the President. The country is one of the G-15 and G-20 major economies of the world, and a founding member of the UN, WBG, WTO and OAS.


title: Argentina

text: In 2012 Argentina was elected again to a two-year non-permanent position on the United Nations Security Council and is participating in major peacekeeping operations in Haiti, Cyprus, Western Sahara and the Middle East. Argentina is described as a middle power.


title: Argentina

text: It is also a founding member of the Mercosur block, having Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay and Venezuela as partners. Since 2002 the country has emphasized its key role in Latin American integration, and the block—which has some supranational legislative functions—is its first international priority.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina claims in Antarctica, where it has the world's oldest continuous state presence, since 1904. This overlaps claims by Chile and the United Kingdom, though all such claims fall under the provisions of the 1961 Antarctic Treaty, of which Argentina is a founding signatory and permanent consulting member, with the Antarctic Treaty Secretariat being based in Buenos Aires.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina disputes sovereignty over the Falkland Islands (), and South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, which are administered by the United Kingdom as Overseas Territories. Argentina is a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court. Argentina is a Major non-NATO ally since 1998 and an OECD candidate country since January 2022.


title: Argentina

text: The president holds the title of commander-in-chief of the Argentine Armed Forces, as part of a legal framework that imposes a strict separation between national defense and internal security systems: The National Defense System, an exclusive responsibility of the federal government, coordinated by the Ministry of Defense, and comprising the Army, the Navy and the Air Force. Ruled and monitored by Congress through the Houses' Defense Committees, it is organized on the essential principle of legitimate self-defense: the repelling of any external military aggression in order to guarantee freedom of the people, national sovereignty, and territorial integrity. Its secondary missions include committing to multinational operations within the framework of the United Nations, participating in internal support missions, assisting friendly countries, and establishing a sub-regional defense system.


title: Argentina

text: Military service is voluntary, with enlistment age between 18 and 24 years old and no conscription. Argentina's defense has historically been one of the best equipped in the region, even managing its own weapon research facilities, shipyards, ordnance, tank and plane factories. However, real military expenditures declined steadily after the defeat in the Falklands/Malvinas War and the defense budget in 2011 was only about 0.74% of GDP, a historical minimum, below the Latin American average. Within the defence budget itself funding for training and even basic maintenance has been significantly cut, a factor contributing to the accidental loss of the Argentine submarine San Juan in 2017. With the United Kingdom also actively acting to restrict even modest Argentinian military modernization efforts, the result has been a steady erosion of Argentine military capabilities, with some arguing that Argentina had, by the end of the 2010s, ceased to be a capable military power.


title: Argentina

text: The Interior Security System, jointly administered by the federal and subscribing provincial governments. At the federal level it is coordinated by the Interior, Security and Justice ministries, and monitored by Congress. It is enforced by the Federal Police; the Prefecture, which fulfills coast guard duties; the Gendarmerie, which serves border guard tasks; and the Airport Security Police. At the provincial level it is coordinated by the respective internal security ministries and enforced by local police agencies.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina was the only South American country to send warships and cargo planes in 1991 to the Gulf War under UN mandate and has remained involved in peacekeeping efforts in multiple locations like UNPROFOR in Croatia/Bosnia, Gulf of Fonseca, UNFICYP in Cyprus (where among Army and Marines troops the Air Force provided the UN Air contingent since 1994) and MINUSTAH in Haiti. Argentina is the only Latin American country to maintain troops in Kosovo during SFOR (and later EUFOR) operations where combat engineers of the Argentine Armed Forces are embedded in an Italian brigade.


title: Argentina

text: In 2007, an Argentine contingent including helicopters, boats and water purification plants was sent to help Bolivia against their worst floods in decades. In 2010 the Armed Forces were also involved in Haiti and Chile humanitarian responses after their respective earthquakes.


title: Argentina

text: Benefiting from rich natural resources, a highly literate population, a diversified industrial base, and an export-oriented agricultural sector, the economy of Argentina is Latin America's third-largest, and the second largest in South America. It has a "very high" rating on the Human Development Index and a relatively high GDP per capita, with a considerable internal market size and a growing share of the high-tech sector.


title: Argentina

text: Access to biocapacity in Argentina is much higher than world average. In 2016, Argentina had 6.8 global hectares of biocapacity per person within its territory, much more than the world average of 1.6 global hectares per person. In 2016 Argentina used 3.4 global hectares of biocapacity per person – their ecological footprint of consumption. This means they use half as much biocapacity as Argentina contains. As a result, Argentina is running a biocapacity reserve. A middle emerging economy and one of the world's top developing nations, is a member of the G-20 major economies.


title: Argentina

text: Historically, however, its economic performance has been very uneven, with high economic growth alternating with severe recessions, income maldistribution and—in the recent decades—increasing poverty. Early in the 20th century Argentina achieved development, and became the world's seventh richest country. Although managing to keep a place among the top fifteen economies until mid-century, it suffered a long and steady decline, but it is still a high income country.


title: Argentina

text: High inflation—a weakness of the Argentine economy for decades—has become a trouble once again, with an annual rate of 24.8% in 2017. To deter it and support the peso, the government imposed foreign currency control. Income distribution, having improved since 2002, is classified as "medium", although it is still considerably unequal.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina ranks 85th out of 180 countries in the Transparency International's 2017 Corruption Perceptions Index, an improvement of 22 positions over its 2014 rankings. Argentina settled its long-standing debt default crisis in 2016 with the so-called vulture funds after the election of Mauricio Macri, allowing Argentina to enter capital markets for the first time in a decade. The government of Argentina defaulted on 22 May 2020 by failing to pay a $500 million due date to its creditors. Negotiations for the restructuring of $66 billion of its debt continue.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is the largest producer in the world of yerba mate (due to the large domestic consumption of mate), one of the 5 largest producers in the world of soybeans, maize, sunflower seed, lemon and pear, one of the 10 largest producers in the world of barley, grape, artichoke, tobacco and cotton, and one of the 15 largest producers in the world of wheat, sugarcane, sorghum and grapefruit. Argentina has been a major producer of wheat since before 1900. However, with the worldwide rise in the importance of soy, it has become the dominant crop in the country. Currently, only Brazil and USA produce more soy than Argentina, and only USA, China and Brazil produce more maize. It's the largest producer in South America of wheat, sunflower seed, barley, lemon and pear. In wine, Argentina is usually among the 10 largest producers in the world. In 2018 it was in 5th place.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is also a traditional meat exporter, having been, in 2019, the 4th world producer of beef, with a production of 3 million tons (only behind USA, Brazil and China), the 4th world producer of honey, and the 10th world producer of wool, in addition to other relevant productions.


title: Argentina

text: The World Bank lists the top producing countries each year, based on the total value of production. According to the 2019 list, Argentina has the 31st most valuable industry in the world (U$57.7 billion). This year, the country was the 31st world producer of steel, the 28th producer of vehicles, the 22nd world producer of beer, the 4th world producer of soybean oil and the 3rd world producer of sunflower oil, among other products.


title: Argentina

text: The mining industry of Argentina is not as relevant as that of other countries. It stands out for being the 4th largest producer of lithium, 9th of silver and 17th of gold worldwide (2019 data). The country stands out in the production of natural gas, being the largest producer in South America and the 18th largest in the world, and has an average annual production close to 500 thousand barrels/day of petroleum, even with the under-utilization of the Vaca Muerta field, due to the country's technical and financial inability to extract these resources.


title: Argentina

text: Córdoba is Argentina's major industrial centre, hosting metalworking, motor vehicle and auto parts manufactures. Next in importance are the Greater Buenos Aires area (food processing, metallurgy, motor vehicles and auto parts, chemicals and petrochemicals, consumer durables, textiles and printing); Rosario (food processing, metallurgy, farm machinery, oil refining, chemicals, and tanning); San Miguel de Tucumán (sugar refining); San Lorenzo (chemicals and pharmaceuticals); San Nicolás de los Arroyos (steel milling and metallurgy); and Ushuaia and Bahía Blanca (oil refining).


title: Argentina

text: Other manufacturing enterprises are located in the provinces of Santa Fe (zinc and copper smelting, and flour milling); Mendoza and Neuquén (wineries and fruit processing); Chaco (textiles and sawmills); and Santa Cruz, Salta and Chubut (oil refining). The electric output of Argentina totaled over per thousand USD.


title: Argentina

text: The country had 5.57 million visitors in 2013, ranking in terms of the international tourist arrivals as the top destination in South America, and second in Latin America after Mexico. Revenues from international tourists reached billion in 2013, down from billion in 2012. The country's capital city, Buenos Aires, is the most visited city in South America. There are 30 National Parks of Argentina including many World Heritage Sites.


title: Argentina

text: Buenos Aires, all provincial capitals except Ushuaia, and all medium-sized towns were interconnected by of paved roads, out of a total road network of . In 2021, the country had about of duplicated highways, most leaving the capital Buenos Aires, linking it with cities like Rosario and Córdoba, Santa Fe, Mar del Plata and Paso de los Libres (in border with Brazil), there are also duplicated highways leaving from Mendoza towards the capital, and between Córdoba and Santa Fé, among other locations. Nevertheless, this road infrastructure is still inadequate and cannot handle the sharply growing demand caused by deterioration of the railway system.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina has the largest railway system in Latin America, with of operating lines , out of a full network of almost . This system links all 23 provinces plus Buenos Aires City, and connects with all neighbouring countries. There are four incompatible gauges in use; this forces virtually all interregional freight traffic to pass through Buenos Aires. The system has been in decline since the 1940s: regularly running up large budgetary deficits, by 1991 it was transporting 1,400 times less goods than it did in 1973. However, in recent years the system has experienced a greater degree of investment from the state, in both commuter rail lines and long-distance lines, renewing rolling stock and infrastructure. In April 2015, by overwhelming majority the Argentine Senate passed a law which re-created Ferrocarriles Argentinos (2015), effectively re-nationalising the country's railways, a move which saw support from all major political parties on both sides of the political spectrum.


title: Argentina

text: Some of the largest sea ports are La Plata–Ensenada, Bahía Blanca, Mar del Plata, Quequén–Necochea, Comodoro Rivadavia, Puerto Deseado, Puerto Madryn, Ushuaia and San Antonio Oeste.


title: Argentina

text: Buenos Aires has historically been the most important port; however since the 1990s the Up-River port region has become dominant: stretching along of the Paraná river shore in Santa Fe province, it includes 17 ports and accounted for 50% of all exports.


title: Argentina

text: In 2020, more than 60% of Argentina's electricity came from non-renewable sources such as natural gas, oil and coal. 27% came from hydropower, 7.3% from wind and solar energy and 4.4% from nuclear energy. At the end of 2021 Argentina was the 21st country in the world in terms of installed hydroelectric power (11.3 GW), the 26th country in the world in terms of installed wind energy (3.2 GW) and the 43rd country in the world in terms of installed solar energy (1.0 GW).


title: Argentina

text: The wind potential of the Patagonia region is considered gigantic, with estimates that the area could provide enough electricity to sustain the consumption of a country like Brazil alone. However, Argentina has infrastructural deficiencies to carry out the transmission of electricity from uninhabited areas with a lot of wind to the great centers of the country.


title: Argentina

text: In 1974 it was the first country in Latin America to put in-line a commercial nuclear power plant, Atucha I. Although the Argentine built parts for that station amounted to 10% of the total, the nuclear fuel it uses are since entirely built in the country. Later nuclear power stations employed a higher percentage of Argentine built components; Embalse, finished in 1983, a 30% and the 2011 Atucha II reactor a 40%.


title: Argentina

text: Argentines have received three Nobel Prizes in the Sciences. Bernardo Houssay, the first Latin American recipient, discovered the role of pituitary hormones in regulating glucose in animals, and shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1947. Luis Leloir discovered how organisms store energy converting glucose into glycogen and the compounds which are fundamental in metabolizing carbohydrates, receiving the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 1970. César Milstein did extensive research in antibodies, sharing the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984. Argentine research has led to treatments for heart diseases and several forms of cancer. Domingo Liotta designed and developed the first artificial heart that was successfully implanted in a human being in 1969. René Favaloro developed the techniques and performed the world's first coronary bypass surgery.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina's nuclear programme has been highly successful. In 1957 Argentina was the first country in Latin America to design and build a research reactor with homegrown technology, the RA-1 Enrico Fermi. This reliance in the development of own nuclear related technologies, instead of buying them abroad, was a constant of Argentina's nuclear programme conducted by the civilian National Atomic Energy Commission (CNEA). Nuclear facilities with Argentine technology have been built in Peru, Algeria, Australia and Egypt. In 1983, the country admitted having the capability of producing weapon-grade uranium, a major step needed to assemble nuclear weapons; since then, however, Argentina has pledged to use nuclear power only for peaceful purposes. As a member of the Board of Governors of the International Atomic Energy Agency, Argentina has been a strong voice in support of nuclear non-proliferation efforts and is highly committed to global nuclear security.


title: Argentina

text: Despite its modest budget and numerous setbacks, academics and the sciences in Argentina have enjoyed an international respect since the turn of the 1900s, when Luis Agote devised the first safe and effective means of blood transfusion as well as René Favaloro, who was a pioneer in the improvement of the coronary artery bypass surgery. Argentine scientists are still on the cutting edge in fields such as nanotechnology, physics, computer sciences, molecular biology, oncology, ecology and cardiology. Juan Maldacena, an Argentine-American scientist, is a leading figure in string theory.


title: Argentina

text: Space research has also become increasingly active in Argentina. Argentine built satellites include LUSAT-1 (1990), Víctor-1 (1996), PEHUENSAT-1 (2007), and those developed by CONAE, the Argentine space agency, of the SAC series. Argentina has its own satellite programme, nuclear power station designs (4th generation) and public nuclear energy company INVAP, which provides several countries with nuclear reactors. Established in 1991, the CONAE has since launched two satellites successfully and, in June 2009, secured an agreement with the European Space Agency for the installation of a 35-m diameter antenna and other mission support facilities at the Pierre Auger Observatory, the world's foremost cosmic ray observatory. The facility will contribute to numerous ESA space probes, as well as CONAE's own, domestic research projects. Chosen from 20 potential sites and one of only three such ESA installations in the world, the new antenna will create a triangulation which will allow the ESA to ensure mission coverage around the clock Argentina was ranked 73rd in the Global Innovation Index in 2021.


title: Argentina

text: The 2010 census counted 40,117,096 inhabitants, up from 36,260,130 in 2001. Argentina ranks third in South America in total population, fourth in Latin America and 33rd globally. Its population density of 15 persons per square kilometer of land area is well below the world average of 50 persons. The population growth rate in 2010 was an estimated 1.03% annually, with a birth rate of 17.7 live births per 1,000 inhabitants and a mortality rate of 7.4 deaths per 1,000 inhabitants. Since 2010, the crude net migration rate has ranged from below zero to up to four immigrants per 1,000 inhabitants per year.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is in the midst of a demographic transition to an older and slower-growing population. The proportion of people under 15 is 25.6%, a little below the world average of 28%, and the proportion of people 65 and older is relatively high at 10.8%. In Latin America this is second only to Uruguay and well above the world average, which is currently 7%. Has a comparatively low infant mortality rate. Its birth rate of 2.3 children per woman is considerably below the high of 7.0 children born per woman in 1895, though still nearly twice as high as in Spain or Italy, which are culturally and demographically similar. The median age is 31.9 years and life expectancy at birth is 77.14 years.


title: Argentina

text: In 2010, Argentina became the first country in Latin America, the second in the Americas, and the tenth worldwide to legalize same-sex marriage.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is considered a country of immigrants. Argentines usually refer to the country as a "crisol de razas" (crucible of races, or melting pot). A 2010 study conducted on 218 individuals by the Argentine geneticist Daniel Corach established that the genetic map of Argentina is composed of 79% from different European ethnicities (mainly Italian and Spanish), 18% of different indigenous ethnicities, and 4.3% of African ethnic groups; 63.6% of the tested group had at least one ancestor who was Indigenous.


title: Argentina

text: In colonial times, the ethnic composition of Argentina was the result of the interaction of the pre-Columbian indigenous population with a colonizing population of Spanish origin and with sub-Saharan African slaves. Before the middle 19th century, the ethnic make up of Argentina was very similar to that of other countries of Latin America.


title: Argentina

text: Between 1857 and 1950 Argentina was the country with the second biggest immigration wave in the world, at 6.6 million, second only to the United States in the numbers of immigrants received (27 million) and ahead of other areas of new settlement like Canada, Brazil and Australia. However, mass European immigration did not have the same impact in the whole country. According to the 1914 national census, 30% of Argentina's population was foreign-born, including 50% of the people in the city of Buenos Aires, but foreigners were only 2% in the provinces of Catamarca and La Rioja (North West region).


title: Argentina

text: Strikingly, at those times, the national population doubled every two decades. This belief is endured in the popular saying ""los argentinos descienden de los barcos"" (Argentines descend from the ships). Therefore, most Argentines are descended from the 19th- and 20th-century immigrants of the great European immigration wave to Argentina (1850–1955), with a great majority of these immigrants coming from diverse European countries, particularly Italy and Spain. The majority of Argentines descend from multiple European ethnic groups, primarily of Italian and Spanish descent, with over 25 million Argentines (almost 60% of the population) having some partial Italian origins.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is also home to a notable Asian population, the majority of whom are descended from either West Asians (namely Lebanese and Syrians) or East Asians (such as the Chinese, Koreans, and the Japanese). The latter of whom number at around 180,000 individuals. The total number of Arab Argentines (most of whom are of Lebanese or Syrian origin) is estimated to be 1.3 to 3.5 million. Many immigrated from various Asian countries to Argentina during the 19th century (especially during the latter half of the century) and the first half of the 20th century. Most Arab Argentines are Christians belonging to the Catholic Church (the Latin Rite church and Eastern Rite churches), and Eastern Orthodox churches. A minority are Muslims.


title: Argentina

text: From the 1970s, immigration has mostly been coming from Bolivia, Paraguay and Peru, with smaller numbers from the Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Romania. The Argentine government estimates that 750,000 inhabitants lack official documents and has launched a program to encourage illegal immigrants to declare their status in return for two-year residence visas—so far over 670,000 applications have been processed under the program.


title: Argentina

text: The country is the largest Spanish-speaking society that universally employs "voseo", the use of the pronoun "vos" instead of "tú" ("you"), which imposes the use of alternative verb forms as well.


title: Argentina

text: Owing to the extensive Argentine geography, Spanish has a strong variation among regions, although the prevalent dialect is "Rioplatense", primarily spoken in the Pampean and Patagonian regions and accented similarly to the Neapolitan language. Italian and other European immigrants influenced "Lunfardo"—the regional slang—permeating the vernacular vocabulary of other Latin American countries as well.


title: Argentina

text: There are several second-languages in widespread use among the Argentine population: English ( taught since elementary school; 42.3% of Argentines claim to speak it, with 15.4% of them claiming to have a high level of language comprehension.); Italian (by 1.5 million people); Arabic (specially its Northern Levantine dialect, by one million people); Standard German (by 200,000 people); Guaraní (by 200,000 people, mostly in Corrientes and Misiones); Catalan (by 174,000 people); Quechua (by 65,000 people, mostly in the Northwest); Wichí (by 53,700 people, mainly in Chaco where, along with Kom and Moqoit, it is official "de jure"); Vlax Romani (by 52,000 people); Albanian (by 40,000 people); Japanese (by 32,000 people); Aymara (by 30,000 people, mostly in the Northwest); Ukrainian (by 27,000 people); Welsh (5,000 people in Patagonia); and some districts also have incorporated it as an educational language.


title: Argentina

text: Christianity is the largest religion in Argentina. The Constitution guarantees freedom of religion. Although it enforces neither an official nor a state faith, it gives Roman Catholicism a preferential status.


title: Argentina

text: According to a 2008 CONICET poll, Argentines were 76.5% Catholic, 11.3% Agnostics and Atheists, 9% Evangelical Protestants, 1.2% Jehovah's Witnesses, and 0.9% Mormons, while 1.2% followed other religions, including Islam, Judaism and Buddhism. These figures appear to have changed quite significantly in recent years: data recorded in 2017 indicated that Catholics made up 66% of the population, indicating a drop of 10.5% in nine years, and the nonreligious in the country standing at 21% of the population, indicating an almost doubling over the same period.


title: Argentina

text: The country is home to both one of the largest Muslim and largest Jewish communities in Latin America, the latter being the seventh most populous in the world. Argentina is a member of the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.


title: Argentina

text: Argentines show high individualization and de-institutionalization of religious beliefs; 23.8% claim to always attend religious services; 49.1% seldom do and 26.8% never do.


title: Argentina

text: On 13 March 2013, Argentine Jorge Mario Bergoglio, the Cardinal Archbishop of Buenos Aires, was elected Bishop of Rome and Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic Church. He took the name "Francis", and he became the first Pope from either the Americas or from the Southern Hemisphere; he is the first Pope born outside of Europe since the election of Pope Gregory III (who was Syrian) in 741.


title: Argentina

text: Health care is provided through a combination of employer and labour union-sponsored plans ("Obras Sociales"), government insurance plans, public hospitals and clinics and through private health insurance plans. Health care cooperatives number over 300 (of which 200 are related to labour unions) and provide health care for half the population; the national INSSJP (popularly known as PAMI) covers nearly all of the five million senior citizens.


title: Argentina

text: There are more than 153,000 hospital beds, 121,000 physicians and 37,000 dentists (ratios comparable to developed nations). The relatively high access to medical care has historically resulted in mortality patterns and trends similar to developed nations': from 1953 to 2005, deaths from cardiovascular disease increased from 20% to 23% of the total, those from tumors from 14% to 20%, respiratory problems from 7% to 14%, digestive maladies (non-infectious) from 7% to 11%, strokes a steady 7%, injuries, 6%, and infectious diseases, 4%. Causes related to senility led to many of the rest. Infant deaths have fallen from 19% of all deaths in 1953 to 3% in 2005.


title: Argentina

text: The availability of health care has also reduced infant mortality from 70 per 1000 live births in 1948 to 12.1 in 2009 and raised life expectancy at birth from 60 years to 76. Though these figures compare favorably with global averages, they fall short of levels in developed nations and in 2006, Argentina ranked fourth in Latin America.


title: Argentina

text: The Argentine education system consists of four levels. An initial level for children between 45 days to 5 years old, with the last two years being compulsory. An elementary or lower school mandatory level lasting 6 or 7 years. the literacy rate was 98.07%. A secondary or high school mandatory level lasting 5 or 6 years. 38.5% of people over age 20 had completed secondary school. A higher level, divided in tertiary, university and post-graduate sub-levels. there were 47 national public universities across the country, as well as 46 private ones.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is highly urbanized, with 92% of its population living in cities: the ten largest metropolitan areas account for half of the population.


title: Argentina

text: About 3 million people live in the city of Buenos Aires, and including the Greater Buenos Aires metropolitan area it totals around 13 million, making it one of the largest urban areas in the world. The metropolitan areas of Córdoba and Rosario have around 1.3 million inhabitants each. Mendoza, San Miguel de Tucumán, La Plata, Mar del Plata, Salta and Santa Fe have at least half a million people each.


title: Argentina

text: The population is unequally distributed: about 60% live in the Pampas region (21% of the total area), including 15 million people in Buenos Aires province. The provinces of Córdoba and Santa Fe, and the city of Buenos Aires have 3 million each. Seven other provinces have over one million people each: Mendoza, Tucumán, Entre Ríos, Salta, Chaco, Corrientes and Misiones. With , Tucumán is the only Argentine province more densely populated than the world average; by contrast, the southern province of Santa Cruz has around .


title: Argentina

text: Argentina is a multicultural country with significant European influences. Modern Argentine culture has been largely influenced by Italian, Spanish and other European immigration from France, Russia, United Kingdom, among others. Its cities are largely characterized by both the prevalence of people of European descent, and of conscious imitation of American and European styles in fashion, architecture and design. Museums, cinemas, and galleries are abundant in all the large urban centres, as well as traditional establishments such as literary bars, or bars offering live music of a variety of genres although there are lesser elements of Amerindian and African influences, particularly in the fields of music and art. The other big influence is the gauchos and their traditional country lifestyle of self-reliance. Finally, indigenous American traditions have been absorbed into the general cultural milieu.


title: Argentina

text: Although Argentina's rich literary history began around 1550, it reached full independence with Esteban Echeverría's "El Matadero", a romantic landmark that played a significant role in the development of 19th century's Argentine narrative, split by the ideological divide between the popular, federalist epic of José Hernández' "Martín Fierro" and the elitist and cultured discourse of Sarmiento's masterpiece, "Facundo".


title: Argentina

text: The Modernist movement advanced into the 20th century including exponents such as Leopoldo Lugones and poet Alfonsina Storni; it was followed by Vanguardism, with Ricardo Güiraldes's "Don Segundo Sombra" as an important reference.


title: Argentina

text: Jorge Luis Borges, Argentina's most acclaimed writer and one of the foremost figures in the history of literature, found new ways of looking at the modern world in metaphor and philosophical debate and his influence has extended to authors all over the globe. Short stories such as "Ficciones" and "The Aleph" are among his most famous works. He was a friend and collaborator of Adolfo Bioy Casares, who wrote one of the most praised science fiction novels, "The Invention of Morel". Julio Cortázar, one of the leading members of the Latin American Boom and a major name in 20th century literature, influenced an entire generation of writers in the Americas and Europe.


title: Argentina

text: A remarkable episode in the Argentine literature's history is the social and literarial dialectica between the so-called named this way because its members used to meet together at the at Florida street and published in the , like Jorge Luis Borges, , (artist), among others, versus the of Roberto Arlt,


title: Argentina

text: Other highly regarded Argentine writers, poets and essayists include Estanislao del Campo, Eugenio Cambaceres, Pedro Bonifacio Palacios, Hugo Wast, Benito Lynch, Enrique Banchs, Oliverio Girondo, Ezequiel Martínez Estrada, Victoria Ocampo, Leopoldo Marechal, Silvina Ocampo, Roberto Arlt, Eduardo Mallea, Manuel Mujica Láinez, Ernesto Sábato, Silvina Bullrich, Rodolfo Walsh, María Elena Walsh, Tomás Eloy Martínez, Manuel Puig, Alejandra Pizarnik, and Osvaldo Soriano.


title: Argentina

text: Tango, a "Rioplatense" musical genre with European and African influences, is one of Argentina's international cultural symbols.


title: Argentina

text: The golden age of tango (1930 to mid-1950s) mirrored that of jazz and swing in the United States, featuring large orchestras like those of Osvaldo Pugliese, Aníbal Troilo, Francisco Canaro, Julio de Caro and Juan d'Arienzo.


title: Argentina

text: After 1955, virtuoso Astor Piazzolla popularized "Nuevo tango", a subtler and more intellectual trend for the genre.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina developed strong classical music and dance scenes that gave rise to renowned artists such as Alberto Ginastera, composer; Alberto Lysy, violinist; Martha Argerich and Eduardo Delgado, pianists; Daniel Barenboim, pianist and symphonic orchestra director; José Cura and Marcelo Álvarez, tenors; and to ballet dancers Jorge Donn, José Neglia, Norma Fontenla, "Maximiliano Guerra", Paloma Herrera, Marianela Núñez, Iñaki Urlezaga and Julio Bocca.


title: Argentina

text: A national Argentine folk style emerged in the 1930s from dozens of regional musical genres and went to influence the entirety of Latin American music. Some of its interpreters, like Atahualpa Yupanqui and Mercedes Sosa, achieved worldwide acclaim. The romantic ballad genre included singers of international fame such as Sandro de América. Tenor saxophonist Leandro "Gato" Barbieri and composer and big band conductor Lalo Schifrin are among the most internationally successful Argentine jazz musicians.


title: Argentina

text: Argentine rock developed as a distinct musical style in the mid-1960s, when Buenos Aires and Rosario became cradles of aspiring musicians.


title: Argentina

text: Founding bands like Los Gatos, Sui Generis, Almendra and Manal were followed by Seru Giran, Los Abuelos de la Nada, Soda Stereo and Patricio Rey y sus Redonditos de Ricota, with prominent artists including Gustavo Cerati, Litto Nebbia, Andrés Calamaro, Luis Alberto Spinetta, Charly García, Fito Páez and León Gieco.


title: Argentina

text: A dance and a musical genre popular at the present is Cachengue a subgenre of Argentine cumbia and reggaeton spreading in popularity in nearby countries such as Uruguay, Chile, Paraguay, and Bolivia.


title: Argentina

text: Buenos Aires is one of the great theatre capitals of the world, with a scene of international caliber centered on Corrientes Avenue, "the street that never sleeps", sometimes referred to as an intellectual Broadway in Buenos Aires. Teatro Colón is a global landmark for opera and classical performances; its acoustics are considered among the world's top five.


title: Argentina

text: The Argentine film industry has historically been one of the three most developed in Latin American cinema, along with those produced in Mexico and Brazil. Started in 1896; by the early 1930s it had already become Latin America's leading film producer, a place it kept until the early 1950s. The world's first animated feature films were made and released in Argentina, by cartoonist Quirino Cristiani, in 1917 and 1918.


title: Argentina

text: Argentine films have achieved worldwide recognition: the country has won two Academy Awards for Best Foreign Language Film, for "The Official Story" (1985) and "The Secret in Their Eyes" (2009). In addition, Argentine composers Luis Enrique Bacalov and Gustavo Santaolalla have been honored with Academy Awards for Best Original Score, and Armando Bó and Nicolás Giacobone shared in the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay for 2014. Also, the Argentine French actress Bérénice Bejo received a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress in 2011 and won the César Award for Best Actress and won the Best Actress award in the Cannes Film Festival for her role in the film "The Past". Argentina also has won seventeen Goya Awards for Best Spanish Language Foreign Film, being by far the most awarded country in Latin America with twenty-four nominations. Many other Argentine films also have been acclaimed by the international critique. about 100 full-length motion pictures were being created annually.


title: Argentina

text: Some of the best-known Argentine painters are Cándido López and Florencio Molina Campos (Naïve style); Ernesto de la Cárcova and Eduardo Sívori (Realism); Fernando Fader (Impressionism); Pío Collivadino, Atilio Malinverno and Cesáreo Bernaldo de Quirós (Postimpressionism); Emilio Pettoruti (Cubism); Julio Barragán (Concretism and Cubism) Antonio Berni (Neofigurativism); Roberto Aizenberg and Xul Solar (Surrealism); Gyula Košice (Constructivism); Eduardo Mac Entyre (Generative art); Luis Seoane, "Carlos Torrallardona", "Luis Aquino", "Alfredo Gramajo Gutiérrez" (Modernism); Lucio Fontana (Spatialism); Tomás Maldonado, Guillermo Kuitca (Abstract art); León Ferrari, Marta Minujín (Conceptual art); Gustavo Cabral (Fantasy art), and Fabián Pérez (Neoemotionalism).


title: Argentina

text: In 1946 Gyula Košice and others created The Madí Movement in Argentina, which then spread to Europe and United States, where it had a significant impact. Tomás Maldonado was one of the main theorists of the Ulm Model of design education, still highly influential globally. Other Argentine artists of worldwide fame include Adolfo Bellocq, whose lithographs have been influential since the 1920s, and Benito Quinquela Martín, the quintessential port painter, inspired by the immigrant-bound La Boca neighbourhood. Internationally laureate sculptors Erminio Blotta, Lola Mora and Rogelio Yrurtia authored many of the classical evocative monuments of the Argentine cityscape.


title: Argentina

text: The colonization brought the Spanish Baroque architecture, which can still be appreciated in its simpler "Rioplatense" style in the reduction of San Ignacio Miní, the Cathedral of Córdoba, and the Cabildo of Luján. Italian and French influences increased at the beginning of the 19th century with strong eclectic overtones that gave the local architecture a unique feeling.


title: Argentina

text: Print media industry is highly developed in Argentina, with more than two hundred newspapers. The major national ones include "Clarín" (centrist, Latin America's best-seller and the second most widely circulated in the Spanish-speaking world), "La Nación" (centre-right, published since 1870), "Página/12" (leftist, founded in 1987), "La Voz del Interior" (centre, founded in 1904), and the "Argentinisches Tageblatt" (German weekly, liberal, published since 1878)


title: Argentina

text: Argentina began the world's first regular radio broadcasting on 27 August 1920, when Richard Wagner's "Parsifal" was aired by a team of medical students led by Enrique Telémaco Susini in Buenos Aires' Teatro Coliseo. there were 260 AM and 1150 FM registered radio stations in the country.


title: Argentina

text: The Argentine television industry is large, diverse and popular across Latin America, with many productions and TV formats having been exported abroad. Since 1999 Argentines enjoy the highest availability of cable and satellite television in Latin America, totaling 87.4% of the country's households, a rate similar to those in the United States, Canada and Europe.


title: Argentina

text: Besides many of the pasta, sausage and dessert dishes common to continental Europe, Argentines enjoy a wide variety of Indigenous and Criollo creations, including "empanadas" (a small stuffed pastry), "locro" (a mixture of corn, beans, meat, bacon, onion, and gourd), "humita" and "mate".


title: Argentina

text: The country has the highest consumption of red meat in the world, traditionally prepared as "asado", the Argentine barbecue. It is made with various types of meats, often including "chorizo", sweetbread, chitterlings, and blood sausage.


title: Argentina

text: Common desserts include "facturas" (Viennese-style pastry), cakes and pancakes filled with "dulce de leche" (a sort of milk caramel jam), "alfajores" (shortbread cookies sandwiched together with chocolate, "dulce de leche" or a fruit paste), and "tortas fritas" (fried cakes)


title: Argentina

text: Argentine wine, one of the world's finest, is an integral part of the local menu. Malbec, Torrontés, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Chardonnay are some of the most sought-after varieties.


title: Argentina

text: "Pato" is the national sport, an ancient horseback game locally originated in the early 1600s and predecessor of horseball. The most popular sport is football. Along with Brazil and France, the men's national team is the only one to have won the most important international triplet: World Cup, Confederations Cup, and the Olympic Gold Medal. It has also won 15 Copas América, 7 Pan American Gold Medals and many other trophies. Alfredo Di Stéfano, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi are among the best players in the game's history.


title: Argentina

text: The country's women's field hockey team "Las Leonas", is one of the world's most successful with four Olympic medals, two World Cups, a World League and seven Champions Trophy. Luciana Aymar is recognized as the best female player in the history of the sport, being the only player to have received the FIH Player of the Year Award eight times.


title: Argentina

text: Basketball is a very popular sport. The men's national team is the only one in the FIBA Americas zone that has won the quintuplet crown: World Championship, Olympic Gold Medal, Diamond Ball, Americas Championship, and Pan American Gold Medal. It has also conquered 13 South American Championships, and many other tournaments. Emanuel Ginóbili, Luis Scola, Andrés Nocioni, Fabricio Oberto, Pablo Prigioni, Carlos Delfino and Juan Ignacio Sánchez are a few of the country's most acclaimed players, all of them part of the NBA. Argentina hosted the Basketball World Cup in 1950 and 1990.


title: Argentina

text: Rugby is another popular sport in Argentina. the men's national team, known as 'Los Pumas' has competed at the Rugby World Cup each time it has been held, achieving their highest ever result in 2007 when they came third. Since 2012 the Los Pumas have competed against Australia, New Zealand & South Africa in The Rugby Championship, the premier international Rugby competition in the Southern Hemisphere. Since 2009 the secondary men's national team known as the 'Jaguares' has competed against the US, Canada, and Uruguay first teams in the Americas Rugby Championship, which Los Jaguares have won six out of eight times it has taken place.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina has produced some of the most formidable champions for Boxing, including Carlos Monzón, the best middleweight in history; Pascual Pérez, one of the most decorated flyweight boxers of all times; Horacio Accavallo, the former WBA and WBC world flyweight champion; Víctor Galíndez, record holder for consecutive world light heavyweight title defenses and Nicolino Locche, nicknamed "The Untouchable" for his masterful defense; they are all inductees into the International Boxing Hall of Fame.


title: Argentina

text: Tennis has been quite popular among people of all ages. Guillermo Vilas is the greatest Latin American player of the Open Era, while Gabriela Sabatini is the most accomplished Argentine female player of all time—having reached number 3 in the WTA ranking, are both inductees into the International Tennis Hall of Fame. Argentina has won the World Team Cup four times, in 1980, 2002, 2007 and 2010 and has reached the semifinals of the Davis Cup 7 times in the last 10 years, losing the finals against Russia in 2006 and Spain in 2008 and 2011; the Argentine team also played the final in 1981, where they lost against the United States. The national squad won the 2016 Davis Cup.


title: Argentina

text: Argentina reigns undisputed in Polo, having won more international championships than any other country and been seldom beaten since the 1930s. The Argentine Polo Championship is the sport's most important international team trophy. The country is home to most of the world's top players, among them Adolfo Cambiaso, the best in Polo history.


title: Argentina

text: Historically, Argentina has had a strong showing within Auto racing. Juan Manuel Fangio was five times Formula One world champion under four different teams, winning 102 of his 184 international races, and is widely ranked as the greatest driver of all time. Other distinguished racers were Oscar Alfredo Gálvez, Juan Gálvez, José Froilán González and Carlos Reutemann.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Ryan Thomas Gosling (born November 12, 1980) is a Canadian actor. Prominent in independent film, he has also worked in blockbuster films of varying genres, and has accrued a worldwide box office gross of over 1.9 billion USD. He has received various accolades, including a Golden Globe Award, and nominations for two Academy Awards and a BAFTA Award.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Born and raised in Canada, he rose to prominence at age 13 for being a child star on the Disney Channel's "The Mickey Mouse Club" (1993–1995), and went on to appear in other family entertainment programs, including "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1995) and "Goosebumps" (1996). His first film role was as a Jewish neo-Nazi in "The Believer" (2001), and he went on to star in several independent films, including "Murder by Numbers" (2002), "The Slaughter Rule" (2002), and "The United States of Leland" (2003).


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling gained wider recognition and stardom for the 2004 romance film "The Notebook". This was followed by starring roles in a string of critically acclaimed independent dramas including "Half Nelson" (2006), for which he was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Actor, "Lars and the Real Girl" (2007), and "Blue Valentine" (2010). Gosling co-starred in three mainstream films in 2011, the romantic comedy "Crazy, Stupid, Love", the political drama "The Ides of March", and the action drama "Drive", all of which were critical and commercial successes. He then starred in the acclaimed financial satire "The Big Short" (2015) and the romantic musical "La La Land" (2016), the latter of which won him the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor and a second Academy Award nomination for Best Actor. Further acclaim followed with the science fiction thriller "Blade Runner 2049" (2017) and the biopic "First Man" (2018). In addition to acting, he made his directorial debut in 2014's "Lost River".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling's band, Dead Man's Bones, released their self-titled debut album and toured North America in 2009. He is a co-owner of Tagine, a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. Gosling is a supporter of PETA, Invisible Children, and the Enough Project and has traveled to Chad, Uganda and eastern Congo to raise awareness about conflicts in the regions. Gosling has been involved in peace promotion efforts in Africa for over a decade. He is in a relationship with actress Eva Mendes, with whom he has two daughters.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Ryan Thomas Gosling was born on November 12, 1980, at St. Joseph's Hospital in London, Ontario, the son of Thomas Ray Gosling, a traveling salesman for a paper mill, and Donna, a secretary. Both of his parents are of part French Canadian descent, along with some German, English, Scottish, and Irish. He and his family were members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and Gosling has said that the religion influenced every aspect of their lives. Because of his father's work, they "moved around a lot" and Gosling lived in both Cornwall, Ontario and Burlington, Ontario. His parents divorced when he was 13, and he and his older sister Mandi lived with their mother, an experience Gosling has credited with programming him "to think like a girl".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling was educated at Gladstone Public School, Cornwall Collegiate and Vocational School and Lester B. Pearson High School. As a child, he watched "Dick Tracy" and was inspired to become an actor. He "hated" being a child, was bullied in elementary school, and had no friends until he was "14 or 15". In grade one, having been heavily influenced by the action film "First Blood", he took steak knives to school and threw them at other children during recess. This incident led to a suspension. He was unable to read, and was evaluated for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but was not diagnosed with it and, contrary to false reports, never took medication. His mother left her job and home-schooled him for a year. He has said homeschooling gave him "a sense of autonomy that I've never really lost". Gosling performed in front of audiences from an early age, encouraged by his sister being a performer. He and his sister sang together at weddings; he performed with Elvis Perry, his uncle's Elvis Presley tribute act, and was involved with a local ballet company. Performing boosted his self-confidence as it was the only thing for which he received praise. He developed an idiosyncratic accent because, as a child, he thought having a Canadian accent did not sound "tough". He began to model his accent on that of Marlon Brando. He dropped out of high school at age seventeen to focus on his acting career.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 1993, twelve-year-old Gosling attended an open audition in Montreal for a revival of the Disney Channel's "The Mickey Mouse Club". He was given a two-year contract as a mouseketeer and moved to Orlando, Florida. He appeared on-screen infrequently because other children were considered more talented. Nonetheless, he has described the job as the greatest two years of his life. Fellow cast members included Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, and Justin Timberlake. Gosling has credited the experience with instilling in them "this great sense of focus." He became particularly close friends with Timberlake and they lived together for six months during the second year of the show. Timberlake's mother became Gosling's legal guardian after his mother returned to Canada for work reasons. Gosling has said that even though he and Timberlake talk infrequently, they are still supportive of each other.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Following the show's cancellation in 1995, Gosling returned to Canada, where he continued to appear in family entertainment television series, including "Are You Afraid of the Dark?" (1995) and "Goosebumps" (1996), and starred in "Breaker High" (1997–98) as Sean Hanlon. At age eighteen, he moved to New Zealand to film the Fox Kids adventure series "Young Hercules" (1998–1999) as the title character. He later said that he initially enjoyed working on the series, but began to care too much about the show, so it was no longer fun for him. He wanted to spend more time sitting with and devising a character as well as play a variety of roles, so he chose to transition into film and not accept any more television work.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Aged 19, Gosling decided to move into "serious acting". He was dropped by his agent and initially found it difficult to secure work because of the "stigma" attached to children's television. After a supporting role in the football drama "Remember the Titans", he secured a lead role as a young Jewish neo-Nazi in 2001's "The Believer". Director Henry Bean said he cast Gosling because his Mormon upbringing helped him understand the isolation of Judaism. Kevin Thomas of the "Los Angeles Times" praised an "electrifying and terrifyingly convincing" performance while Todd McCarthy of "Variety" felt his "dynamite performance" could "scarcely have been better". The film won the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival and Gosling has described it as "the film that kind of gift-wrapped for me the career that I have now." Because of the controversial nature of the film, it was difficult to secure financial backing for a full theatrical release, and the film was instead broadcast on Showtime. The film was a commercial failure, grossing $416,925 worldwide from a production budget of $1.5 million.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2002, Gosling co-starred in the psychological thriller "Murder by Numbers" with Sandra Bullock and Michael Pitt, where Gosling and Pitt portrayed a pair of high school seniors who believe they can commit the perfect murder. Bullock played the detective tasked with investigating the crime. Lisa Schwarzbaum of "Entertainment Weekly" described him as "a phenomenal talent even in junk like this" while Todd McCarthy felt that the "strong and "charismatic" young actors were "let down by the screenplay". The film was a minor commercial success, grossing $56 million worldwide from a production budget of $50 million. His second screen appearance of 2002 was in "The Slaughter Rule" with David Morse which explores the relationship between a high school football player and his troubled coach in rural Montana. Gosling has said that the opportunity to work with Morse made him "a better actor". Stephen Holden of "The New York Times" described Gosling as "major star material" with a "rawness and an intensity that recall the young Matt Dillon" while Manohla Dargis of the "Los Angeles Times" was won over by his "raw talent". The film was released in just three US theatres and grossed $13,411.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2003, Gosling starred in "The United States of Leland" as a teenager imprisoned for the murder of a disabled boy. He was drawn to the role because it was unusual to find a character that was "emotionally disconnected for the whole film." Critic Roger Ebert felt that the "gifted actor does everything that can be done with Leland, but the character comes from a writer's conceits, not from life." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" noted that he "struggles to rescue Leland from the clutches of cliché" while David Rooney of "Variety" felt that his "one-note, blankly disturbed act has none of the magnetic edge of his breakthrough work in "The Believer"". The film grossed $343,847 in the United States and was not released overseas.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling gained mainstream attention in 2004 after starring opposite fellow Canadian Rachel McAdams in the romantic drama film "The Notebook", a film adaptation of Nicholas Sparks' novel of the same name, directed by Nick Cassavetes. Gosling played Noah Calhoun and commented on the role: "It gave me an opportunity to play a character over a period of time – from 1940 to 1946 – that was quite profound and formative." He sought to imbue his character with "quiet strength" and was inspired by Sam Shepard's performance in "Days of Heaven". Shepard co-starred in "The Notebook". Filming took place in Charleston, South Carolina, in late 2002 and early 2003. Although Gosling and McAdams became romantically involved in 2005, they had a combative relationship on the set. "We inspired the worst in each other," Gosling has said. "It was a strange experience, making a love story and not getting along with your co-star in any way." At one point, Gosling asked Cassavetes to "bring somebody else in for my off-camera shot" because he felt McAdams was uncooperative. "The New York Times" praised the "spontaneous and combustible" performances of the two leads and noted that, "against your better judgment, you root for the pair to beat the odds against them." Desson Thomson of "The Washington Post" praised Gosling's "beguiling unaffectedness" and noted that "it's hard not to like these two or begrudge them a great love together". The film grossed over $115 million worldwide. Gosling won four Teen Choice Awards and an MTV Movie Award. "Entertainment Weekly" has said that the movie contains the All-Time Best Movie Kiss while the "Los Angeles Times" has included a scene from the film in a list of the 50 Classic Movie Kisses. "The Notebook" has appeared on many Most Romantic Movies lists.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2005, Gosling appeared as a disturbed young art student in "Stay", a psychological thriller film co-starring Naomi Watts and Ewan McGregor. In an uncomplimentary review of the film, Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" stated that Gosling "like his fans, deserves better." Todd McCarthy remarked that the "capable" Gosling and McGregor "deliver nothing new from what they've shown before". The film grossed $8 million worldwide. Gosling was unfazed by the negative reaction: "I had a kid come up to me on the street, 10 years old, and he says, 'Are you that guy from "Stay"? What the f--- was that movie about?' I think that's great. I'm just as proud if someone says, 'Hey, you made me sick in that movie,' as if they say I made them cry."


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling next starred in 2006's "Half Nelson" as a drug-addicted junior high school teacher who forms a bond with a young student. To prepare for the role, Gosling moved to New York for one month before shooting began. He lived in a small apartment in Brooklyn and spent time shadowing an eighth grade teacher. Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" described it as "a mesmerizing performance ... that shows the kind of deep understanding of character few actors manage." Ruthe Stein of the "San Francisco Chronicle" drew comparisons with Marlon Brando and asserted that "nobody who cares about great acting will want to miss his performance". Roger Ebert believed that his performance "proves he's one of the finest actors working in contemporary movies." Gosling garnered a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Actor. The film grossed $4 million at the worldwide box office. In 2007, he was invited to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling played an introvert who falls for a sex doll in the 2007 film "Lars and the Real Girl". He drew inspiration from James Stewart's performance in "Harvey". Roger Ebert felt "a film about a life-sized love doll" had been turned into "a life-affirming statement of hope" because of "a performance by Ryan Gosling that says things that cannot be said". Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" described his performance as "a small miracle ... because he changes and grows so imperceptibly before our eyes." However, Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" felt "the performance is a rare miscalculation in a mostly brilliant career." He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was a box office failure, failing to recoup its $12 million production budget. Gosling starred opposite Anthony Hopkins in the 2007 courtroom thriller "Fracture". He originally turned down the role, but changed his mind when Hopkins signed on. Gosling noted that he was drawn to his character, Willie, because he had flaws and seemed like a real person. He spent time shadowing lawyers and observing courtroom proceedings in preparation for the role. Claudia Puig of "USA Today" declared that "watching a veteran like Hopkins verbally joust with one of the best young actors in Hollywood is worth the price of admission". Manohla Dargis of "The New York Times" felt it was a treat to watch "the spectacle of that crafty scene stealer Anthony Hopkins mixing it up with that equally cunning screen nibbler Ryan Gosling ... Each actor is playing a pulp type rather than a fully formed individual, but both fill in the blanks with an alchemical mix of professional and personal charisma." The film grossed over $91 million worldwide.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling was scheduled to begin filming "The Lovely Bones" in 2007. However, he left the production two days before filming began because of "creative differences" and was replaced by Mark Wahlberg. Gosling was cast as the father of the murdered teenage girl and initially felt he was too young for the role. The director Peter Jackson and the producer Fran Walsh persuaded him that he could be aged with hair and make-up changes. Before shooting began, Gosling gained 60 pounds (27 kilograms) in weight and grew a beard to appear older. Walsh then "began to feel he was not right. It was our blindness, the desire to make it work no matter what." Gosling later said, "We didn't talk very much during the preproduction process, which was the problem ... I just showed up on set, and I had gotten it wrong. Then I was fat and unemployed." He has said the experience was "an important realisation for me: not to let your ego get involved. It's OK to be too young for a role."


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Following a three-year absence from the screen, Gosling starred in five films in 2010 and 2011. "I've never had more energy," Gosling said. "I'm more excited to make films than I used to be. I used to kind of dread it. It was so emotional and taxing. But I've found a way to have fun while doing it. And I think that translates into the films." He has also spoken of feeling depressed when not working. In 2010, he starred opposite Michelle Williams in Derek Cianfrance's directorial debut, the marital drama "Blue Valentine". The low-budget film was mainly improvised and Gosling has said "you had to remind yourself you were making a film". Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" felt he "brings a preternatural understanding of people to his performance" while A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" found him to be "convincing as the run-down, desperate, older Dean, and maybe a bit less so as the younger version". Owen Gleiberman of "Entertainment Weekly" wrote that he "plays Dean as a snarky working-class hipster, but when his anger is unleashed, the performance turns powerful." However, Wesley Morris of "The Boston Globe" felt the performance was an example of "hipsterism misdirected". He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. The film was a box office success, grossing over $12 million worldwide from a production budget of $1 million.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling's second on-screen appearance of 2010 was in the mystery film "All Good Things" with Kirsten Dunst, based on a true story. He played the role of New York real-estate heir David Marks, who was investigated for the disappearance of his wife (played by Dunst). Gosling found the filming process to be a "dark experience" and did not undertake any promotional duties for the film. When asked if he was proud of the film, he said, "I'm proud of what Kirsten does in the movie." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" wrote that he "gets so deep into character you can feel his nerve endings." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" found the "chameleonic Gosling is completely convincing as this empty shell of a man". Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" felt that the film belonged to Dunst, but praised Gosling's performance. The film grossed $644,535 worldwide. Also in 2010, Gosling narrated and produced "ReGeneration", a documentary that explores the cynicism in today's youth towards social and political causes.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: 2011 saw Gosling expand his horizons by appearing in three diverse, high-profile roles. He co-starred in his first comedic role in the romantic comedy-drama "Crazy, Stupid, Love", with Steve Carell and Emma Stone. Gosling took cocktail-making classes at a Los Angeles bar in preparation for his role as a smooth-talking ladies' man. Ann Hornaday of "The Washington Post" said his "seductive command presence suggests we may have found our next George Clooney". Peter Travers declared him "a comic knockout" while Claudia Puig of "USA Today" felt he reveals a "surprising" "knack for comedy." He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy. The film was a box office success, grossing over $142 million worldwide. With adjustments for inflation, it is the second most successful of Gosling's career.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling's first action role was in "Drive", based on a novel by James Sallis. Gosling played a Hollywood stunt performer who moonlights as a getaway driver, and he has described the film as a "violent John Hughes movie": "I always thought if "Pretty in Pink" had head-smashing it would be perfect". Roger Ebert compared Gosling to Steve McQueen and stated that he "embodies presence and sincerity ... he has shown a gift for finding arresting, powerful characters [and] can achieve just about anything. Joe Morgenstern of "The Wall Street Journal" pondered "the ongoing mystery of how he manages to have so much impact with so little apparent effort. It's irresistible to liken his economical style to that of Marlon Brando." The film was a box office success, grossing $70 million worldwide from a production budget of $15 million.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In his final appearance of 2011, Gosling co-starred with Philip Seymour Hoffman in the political drama "The Ides of March" directed by George Clooney, in which he played an ambitious press secretary. Gosling partly decided to do the film to become more politically aware: "I'm Canadian and so American politics aren't really in my wheelhouse." Joe Morganstern stated that Gosling and Hoffman "are eminently well equipped to play variations on their characters' main themes. Yet neither actor has great material to conjure with in the script." In a generally tepid review, Kenneth Turan of the "Los Angeles Times" asserted that it was "certainly involving to see the charismatic Gosling verbally spar with superb character actors like Hoffman and [Paul] Giamatti." Mick LaSalle of the "San Francisco Chronicle" felt there was "one aspect to the character that Gosling can't quite nail down, that might simply be outside his sphere, which is idealism." He was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Drama. The film grossed $66 million worldwide.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2013's crime thriller "Gangster Squad", Gosling portrayed Sgt. Jerry Wooters, a 1940s LAPD officer who attempts to outsmart mob boss Mickey Cohen (played by Sean Penn). He was reunited with Emma Stone as his love interest, after their earlier pairing in "Crazy, Stupid, Love". Stone has said she hopes they will find more projects to work together on. A.O. Scott of "The New York Times" described the film as an excuse for the cast "to earn some money trying out funny voices and suppressing whatever sense of nuance they might possess." Christy Lemire of "The Boston Globe" criticized Gosling's "weird, whispery voice" and his "barely developed, one-note" character. However, Betsy Sharkey of the "Los Angeles Times" felt that there was "a seductive power" in the scenes shared by Gosling and Stone: "But like too much else in the film, it's a scenario that is only half played out."


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In "The Place Beyond the Pines", a generational drama directed by "Blue Valentine"s Derek Cianfrance, Gosling played Luke, a motorcycle stunt rider who robs banks to provide for his family. The shoot was described by Gosling as "the best experience I have ever had making a film." A. O. Scott of "The New York Times" praised his performance, writing: "Mr. Gosling's cool self-possession — the only thing he was allowed to display in "Drive" — is complicated, made interesting, by hints of childlike innocence and vulnerability." Scott Foundas of "The Village Voice" was unimpressed: "Gosling's character verges on parody ... Gosling uses a soft, wounded half-whisper that tells us this is all some kind of put-on ... It's a close variation on the role Gosling played to stronger effect in Nicolas Winding Refn's existential Hollywood thriller, "Drive", where it was clear the character was meant to be an abstraction." David Denby of "The New Yorker" remarked that he "reprises his inexorable-loner routine". The film grossed $35 million worldwide from a production budget of $15 million.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Later in 2013, Gosling starred in the violent revenge drama "Only God Forgives", directed by "Drive"s Nicolas Winding Refn. Gosling undertook Muay Thai training in preparation for the role, and has described the script as "the strangest thing I've ever read". Both the film and his performance drew negative reviews. David Edelstein of "New York" magazine stated, "Gosling looked like a major actor as a skinhead in "The Believer" and a star in "Half Nelson". Then he stopped acting and started posing. His performance in "Only God Forgives" (would God forgive that title?) is one long, moist stare". Stephen Holden of the "New York Times" criticized Gosling's inability "to give his automaton any suggestion of an inner life". Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" commented that Gosling, while "meant to be a blank page for us to write on, often looks merely blank".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In early 2013, Gosling announced that he was taking a break from acting, stating, "I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that." Gosling's directorial debut "Lost River" competed in the Un Certain Regard section at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival. The "fantasy noir", written by Gosling, stars Christina Hendricks, Ben Mendelsohn, and Matt Smith. The film received largely unfavorable reviews. Peter Bradshaw of "The Guardian" found it "insufferably conceited" and remarked that Gosling had lost "any sense of proportion or humility." Robbie Collin of "The Daily Telegraph" described "Lost River" as "mind-bogglingly pleased with itself", while "Variety"s Justin Chang dismissed the "derivative" film as a "train-wreck."


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2015, Gosling played a bond salesman in the ensemble financial satire "The Big Short", a Best Picture nominee at the 2016 Academy Awards. David Sims of "The Atlantic" felt that he was "smarmily funny, somehow simultaneously magnetic and repulsive; after years wandering the halls of mediocre art cinema, it's wonderful to see him cut loose again." Peter Travers of "Rolling Stone" said: "Gosling, a virtuoso of verbal sleaze, talks directly to the camera, and he's volcanically fierce and funny." The following year, Gosling starred in the black comedy "The Nice Guys", opposite Russell Crowe, and in Damien Chazelle's musical "La La Land", for which he won the Golden Globe Award for Best Actor – Motion Picture Musical or Comedy and received his second Academy Award for Best Actor nomination. Robbie Collin praised his chemistry with co-star Emma Stone, writing: "Both stars are so attuned to each other's pace and flow that their repartee just seems to tumble out, perfectly formed." It emerged as one of his most commercially successful films, with earnings of over $440 million against its $30 million budget.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling was signed on to work with Terrence Malick in 2004 on the biographical film "Che", but later dropped out. He made an appearance in Malick's "Song to Song" (2017), which co-starred Christian Bale and Cate Blanchett. Also in 2017, he starred in "Blade Runner 2049", a sequel to the 1982 science fiction film "Blade Runner", directed by Denis Villeneuve and co-starring Harrison Ford, who reprised his role as Rick Deckard. Gosling's role was as Officer K, a "blade runner" working for the LAPD whose job it is to kill rogue bioengineered humans known as replicants. A. O. Scott found him to be perfectly cast, adding that his "ability to elicit sympathy while seeming too distracted to want it – his knack for making boredom look like passion and vice versa – makes him a perfect warm-blooded robot for our time". Despite being Gosling's largest box office opening, grossing $31.5 million domestically, the film generally underperformed at the box office.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2018, Gosling portrayed Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became the first man to walk on the Moon in 1969, in Chazelle's biopic "First Man", based on the book "". Writing for IndieWire, Michael Nordine commended him for bringing "quiet charisma" and "grace" to his role, while Nicholas Barber of the BBC hailed him as the "best deadpan actor in the business".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling is will next star in Greta Gerwig’s live-action adaptation based the eponymous fashion doll line Barbie, opposite Margot Robbie. Since 2017, Gosling has been attached to co-produce a film adaptation of Jeff Lemire’s 2012 graphic novel "The Underwater Welder". "Deadline" confirmed in March 2020 that Gosling will produce and star in "Project Hail Mary" with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in negotiations to acquire the project, based on the Andy Weir novel centered on a solitary astronaut on a space ship who is trying to save Earth.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In late May 2020, Gosling was cast in the role of the Wolfman in Universal's reboot of "The Wolf Man" from 1941. The film will be directed by Derek Cianfrance, making Gosling's third collaboration with him. Later, "Deadline" reported in September 2020 that Gosling is set to star in an untitled stuntman drama from director David Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce, who previously worked together on the "Fast and Furious" spinoff "Hobbs & Shaw" under Universal. In April 2022, it was announced that the project, now titled "The Fall Guy", is expected to begin production in August.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In February 2021, Gosling signed to star in "The Actor", an adaptation of Donald E. Westlake's novel "Memory". Duke Johnson will direct the film and produce with Abigail Spencer under their "Innerlight Films" production banner. Gosling, who will also produce alongside Ken Kao, will play the lead role of Paul Cole, who must deal with his damaged memory as he struggles to rebuild his life after being left for dead and hospitalized in 1950s Ohio.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2007, Gosling made a solo recording called "Put Me in the Car" available for download on the Internet. Also that year, Gosling and his friend Zach Shields formed the indie rock band Dead Man's Bones. The two first met in 2005 when Gosling was dating Rachel McAdams and Shields was dating her sister, Kayleen. They initially conceived of the project as a monster-themed musical but settled on forming a band when they realized putting on a stage production would be too expensive. They recorded their eponymous debut album with the Silverlake Conservatory's Children's Choir and learned to play all the instruments themselves. Gosling contributed vocals, piano, guitar, bass guitar and cello to the record. The album was released through ANTI- Records on October 6, 2009. "Pitchfork Media" was won over by the "unique, catchy and lovably weird record" while "Prefix" felt the album was "rarely kitschy and never inappropriate". However, "Spin" felt the album "doesn't reverse the rule that actors make dubious pop musicians" and "Entertainment Weekly" criticized its "cloying, gothic preciousness".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In September 2009, Gosling and Shields had a three-night residency at LA's Bob Baker Marionette Theater where they performed alongside dancing neon skeletons and glowing ghosts. They then conducted a thirteen-date tour of North America in October 2009, using a local children's choir at every show. Instead of an opening act, a talent show was held each night. In September 2010, they performed at Los Angeles' FYF Festival. In 2011, the actor spoke of his intentions to record a second "Dead Man's Bones" album. No children's choir will be featured on the follow-up album because "it's not very rock 'n' roll".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling previously resided in New York City with his mixed-breed dog George. He co-owns Tagine, a Moroccan restaurant in Beverly Hills, California. He bought the restaurant on an impulse; he has said that he spent "all [his] money" on it, spent a year doing the renovation work himself, and now oversees the restaurant's menus.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling dated his "Murder by Numbers" co-star Sandra Bullock from 2002 to 2003. He then had a relationship with his "The Notebook" co-star Rachel McAdams from 2005 to 2007, before they briefly reunited in 2008.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling has been in a relationship with his "The Place Beyond the Pines" co-star Eva Mendes since September 2011. The couple have two daughters, one born in 2014 and the second in 2016.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Gosling is supportive of various social causes. He has worked with PETA on a campaign to encourage KFC and McDonald's to use improved methods of chicken slaughter in their factories, and on a campaign encouraging dairy farmers to stop de-horning cows. Gosling volunteered in Biloxi, Mississippi in 2005, as part of the clean-up effort following Hurricane Katrina. He is a supporter of Invisible Children, Inc., a group that raises awareness about the LRA in Central Africa. In 2005, Gosling traveled to Darfur refugee camps in Chad. He was a speaker at Campus Progress' National Conference in 2008 where he discussed Darfur. As part of his work with the Enough Project, he visited Uganda in 2007 and eastern Congo in 2010.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: During the filming for "Barbie", Gosling was seen wearing a fan made t-shirt of his co-star Ncuti Gatwa as the Fourteenth Doctor from "Doctor Who" to show his support for their casting. He has previously expressed admiration for actor Matt Smith, who played the Eleventh Doctor, which led him to cast the actor for his film "Lost River".


title: Ryan Gosling

text: Among his many accolades, Gosling has received two Academy Award nominations, a British Academy Film Award nomination, one Golden Globe Award from five nominations, and four Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In 2006, his role as a troubled history teacher in the drama film "Half Nelson" garnered him wide critical recognition and nominations for the Academy Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. Ten years later, he received further recognition for his role as a struggling jazz pianist in the musical romance film "La La Land" (2016), and he won the Golden Globe Award and was nominated for the Academy Award, British Academy Film Award and Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Actor. In between "Half Nelson" and "La La Land", Gosling received other recognition for his roles in "Lars and the Real Girl" (2007), "Blue Valentine" (2010), "The Ides of March" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love" (both 2011); all of which earned him Golden Globe nominations, with "Lars and the Real Girl" also earning him a SAG nomination. His Golden Globe nominations for "The Ides of March" and "Crazy, Stupid, Love" in the respective categories of Best Actor – Drama and Best Actor – Musical or Comedy made him one of few actors to be nominated in both leading role categories in the same year. As a member of the ensemble cast of the biographical comedy-drama film "The Big Short" (2015), he was nominated for the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Motion Picture Cast.


title: Ryan Gosling

text: In March 2017, Gosling was at the center of a prank involving Goldene Kamera, an annual German film and television award. German comedians Joko Winterscheidt and Klaas Heufer-Umlauf arranged for a Ryan Gosling impersonator to be awarded the "Best International Film" prize for "La La Land". Following the event, a speaker for television broadcaster ZDF asked for the trophy to be given back, stating that "La La Land" had won the prize and that the trophy would be given to the real Ryan Gosling. The incident, which became known as "GoslingGate", sparked criticism of the event's concept. Media critics argued that the "Best International Film" award had only been created in an effort to get Ryan Gosling on the show, with no regards for the movie's quality. The incident played a major role in the cancelation of the Goldene Kamera in 2019. In 2018, Winterscheidt, Heufer-Umlauf and the Gosling double Ludwig Lehner were awarded the Grimme Award for their media criticism.


title: Serbia

text: Serbia (, ; Serbian: , , ), officially the Republic of Serbia (Serbian: , , ), is a landlocked country in Southeastern and Central Europe, situated at the crossroads of the Pannonian Basin and the Balkans. It shares land borders with Hungary to the north, Romania to the northeast, Bulgaria to the southeast, North Macedonia to the south, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina to the west, and Montenegro to the southwest, and claims a border with Albania through the disputed territory of Kosovo. Serbia with Kosovo has about 8.6 million inhabitants. Its capital Belgrade is also the largest city.


title: Serbia

text: Continuously inhabited since the Paleolithic Age, the territory of modern-day Serbia faced Slavic migrations in the 6th century, establishing several regional states in the early Middle Ages at times recognised as tributaries to the Byzantine, Frankish 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 Ottomans 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. Following casualties in World War I, and the subsequent unification of the former Habsburg crownland of Vojvodina with Serbia, the country co-founded Yugoslavia with other South Slavic nations, which would exist 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 for the first time since 1918. 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.


title: Serbia

text: Serbia is an upper-middle income economy, ranked 63rd in the Human Development Index domain. It is a unitary parliamentary constitutional republic, member of the UN, CoE, OSCE, PfP, BSEC, CEFTA, and is acceding to the WTO. Since 2014, the country has been negotiating its EU accession, with the aim of joining the European Union by 2025. Serbia formally adheres to the policy of military neutrality. The country provides universal health care and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.


title: Serbia

text: The origin of the name "Serbia" is unclear. Historically, authors have mentioned the Serbs ( / Срби) and the Sorbs of Eastern Germany (Upper Sorbian: "Serbja"; Lower Sorbian: "Serby") in a variety of ways: "Cervetiis" ("Servetiis"), "gentis ", "Suurbi", "Sorabi", "Soraborum", "Sorabos", "Surpe", "Sorabici", "Sorabiet", "Sarbin", "Swrbjn", "Servians", "Sorbi", "Sirbia, Sribia, Zirbia, Zribia", "Suurbelant", "Surbia", "Serbulia" / "Sorbulia" among others. These authors used these names to refer to Serbs and Sorbs in areas where their historical and current presence is not disputable (notably in the Balkans and Lusatia). However, there are also sources that mention the same or similar names in other parts of the World (most notably in the Asiatic Sarmatia in the Caucasus).


title: Serbia

text: There exist two prevailing theories on 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 Iranian-Sarmatian language with various meanings. In his work, "De Administrando Imperio", Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus suggests that the Serbs originated from White Serbia near Francia. According to the recorded tradition the White Serbs split in two, with the half that became known as the Serbs coming down to settle Byzantine land.


title: Serbia

text: 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.


title: Serbia

text: Archaeological evidence of Paleolithic settlements on the territory of present-day Serbia is scarce. A fragment of a human jaw was found in Sićevo (Mala Balanica) and is believed to be up to 525,000–397,000 years old.


title: Serbia

text: Approximately around 6,500 years BC, during the Neolithic, the Starčevo and Vinča cultures existed in the region of modern-day Belgrade. They dominated much of Southeastern Europe (as well as parts of Central Europe and Asia Minor). Several important archaeological sites from this era, including Lepenski Vir and Vinča-Belo Brdo, still exist near the banks of the Danube.


title: Serbia

text: During the Iron Age, local tribes of Triballi, Dardani, and Autariatae were encountered by the Ancient Greeks 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).


title: Serbia

text: The Romans 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 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.


title: Serbia

text: The chief towns of Upper Moesia (and broader) were: Singidunum (Belgrade), Viminacium (now Old Kostolac), Remesiana (now Bela Palanka), Naissos (Niš), and Sirmium (now Sremska Mitrovica), the latter of which served as a Roman capital during the Tetrarchy. 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.


title: Serbia

text: When the Roman Empire was divided in 395, most of Serbia remained under the Eastern Roman Empire. At the same time, its northwestern parts were included in the Western Roman Empire. By the 6th century, South Slavs migrated into the European provinces of the Byzantine Empire in large numbers. They merged with the local Romanised population that was gradually assimilated.


title: Serbia

text: White Serbs, an early Slavic tribe from White Serbia eventually settled in an area between the Sava river and the Dinaric Alps. By the beginning of the 9th century, Serbia achieved a level of statehood. Christianization of Serbia was a gradual process, finalized by the middle of the 9th century. In the mid-10th-century, the Serbian state stretched between the Adriatic Sea, the Neretva, the Sava, the Morava, and Skadar. During the 11th and 12th century, Serbian state frequently fought with the neighbouring Byzantine Empire. Between 1166 and 1371, Serbia was ruled by the Nemanjić dynasty (whose legacy is especially cherished), under whom the state was elevated to a kingdom in 1217, and an empire in 1346, under Stefan Dušan. Serbian Orthodox Church was organized as an autocephalous archbishopric in 1219, through the effort of Sava, the country's patron saint, and in 1346 it was raised to the Patriarchate. Monuments of the Nemanjić period survive in many monasteries (several being World Heritage sites) and fortifications.


title: Serbia

text: 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. The Ottomans finally conquered the Serbian Despotate in 1459. The Ottoman threat and eventual conquest saw massive migrations of Serbs to the west and north.


title: Serbia

text: In all Serbian lands conquered by the Ottomans, the native nobility was eliminated and the peasantry was enserfed to Ottoman rulers, while much of the clergy fled or were confined to the isolated monasteries. Under the Ottoman system, Serbs, as well as Christians, were considered an inferior class of people and subjected to heavy taxes, and a portion of the Serbian population experienced Islamization. Many Serbs were recruited during the devshirme system, a form of slavery in the Ottoman Empire, in which boys from Balkan Christian families were forcibly converted to Islam and trained for infantry units of the Ottoman army known as the Janissaries. The Serbian Patriarchate of Peć was extinguished in 1463, but reestablished in 1557, providing for limited continuation of Serbian cultural traditions within the Ottoman Empire, under the Millet system.


title: Serbia

text: 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. Continuing wars and various 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 Empire, partially by the Treaty of Karlovci (1699), and fully by the Treaty of Požarevac (1718).


title: Serbia

text: As the Great Serb Migrations depopulated most of southern Serbia, the Serbs sought refuge across the Danube River in Vojvodina to the north and the Military Frontier in the west, where they were granted rights by the Austrian crown under measures such as the "Statuta Wallachorum" of 1630. Much of central Serbia switched from Ottoman rule to Habsburg control (1686–91) during the Habsburg-Ottoman war (1683–1699). Following several petitions, Emperor Leopold I formally granted Serbs who wished to settle in the northern regions the right to their autonomous crown land. 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.


title: Serbia

text: 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 Vojvodina which remained under the Habsburg Empire, central regions of Serbia were occupied once again by the Habsburgs in 1788–1792.