What if Yugoslavia Reunited Today?

At its peak in the second half of the 20th century, Yugoslavia was one of the key European powers at its time and controlled a significant portion of the Balkan Peninsula in Southeast Europe, stretching from modern-day Slovenia in the north to modern-day North Macedonia in the south. However, Yugoslavia's golden age didn't last for ever and soon enough, it gradually began to lose its power and influence it once had and even began to lose control of its own country, from many parts of it declaring independence and even fighting a brutal war to secure their sovereignty. Until finally, on the 27th of April 1992, its government collapsed, marking the end of Yugoslavia.

The first thing we need to think about a reunited Yugoslavia is the population and land it would control. To start off, a total of 6-7 modern-day countries, depending on who you ask, would lose all or some of their territory to the country: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Slovenia and the partially recognised Kosovo, which would all be located in Europe.

Taking all of these countries making it up into consideration, Yugoslavia's total land area would stand at 98,798 Square miles (255,886 Sq km). This would make it the 11th largest country in Europe but only the 79th largest country in the entire world, larger than many other countries though like Guinea (245,857 Sq km) and the United Kingdom (242,900 Sq km), but smaller than Gabon (267,668 Sq km) and New Zealand (270,467 Sq km).

The population of Yugoslavia would also be a modest number at around 20.3 Million, which would be enough to place it as the 9th most populous country in Europe, but only the 60th when taking the whole word into consideration, still ahead of many other countries, though, like Mali (20.25 Million) and Romania (19.2 Million), but behind Burkina Faso (20.9 Million) and Sri Lanka (21.4 Million). Serbia would be the most populous country within Yugoslavia's borders with a population alone of 8.7 Million.

A reunited Yugoslavia would also be home to some big cities with lots to show for, bringing us to the next topic. The country's capital wouldn't be much of a difficult choice to predict in contrary to some other empires I have covered so far in this series, as Belgrade was not only the historic capital of Yugoslavia, but is also one of the most significant cities in the region today and currently has a modest population of 1,430,000, which would also become the biggest city in the country. Here would be the rest of the top 5 most populous urban areas within Yugoslavia:

Similar to its population and land, a reunited Yugoslavia would also have a modest economy. In total, its Nominal GDP would stand at around $222.23 Billion, which isn't quite a large amount but would still be enough to put the country in 52nd place, in terms of Nominal GDP, well ahead of other economies like Greece ($209.86 Billion), Iraq ($190.73 Billion) and Kazakhstan ($187.83 Billion), but slightly behind those of Peru ($225.92 Billion) and New Zealand ($243.33 Billion).

The GDP Per Capita of Yugoslavia wouldn't be so impressive, however, mainly due to the quite impoverished living standards in some parts of the country like North Macedonia and Kosovo. Nonetheless, taking all of this into consideration, this number would stand at around $10,947, and would be enough to place it in 83rd place, still ahead of many other countries like Nauru ($10,125) and Kazakhstan ($9,828), but just slightly below the Global Average of ($11,339) and the countries of Bulgaria ($11,321) and the Maldives ($11,801).

Yugoslavia could also possibly join the European Union to boost its economy and living standards as two of the modern-day countries making it up, Croatia and Slovenia, are already members of the organization. This would still be unclear though.

The next topic we need to think about a reunited Yugoslavia is the religious and ethnic groups prevalent within its borders.

Starting with religion, Orthodox Christianity would be the largest followed faith within the country, with 43% of the population adhering to it. This would be followed by Catholics making up 27% of the population and last major religion, Islam, at 22%. The final 8% would be made up of Atheists, irreligious peoples and other small faiths.

Now focusing on Ethnic Groups, Serbs would be the largest ethnicity within Yugoslavia's borders, at 35% of the population, still not being able to make a clear majority of 50% though, already giving a sense of how diverse the country would be. Croats be next at 20%, making it the second largest ethnicity within its borders. This would be followed by Albanians at 11%, Bosnians at 9%, Slovenes at 8%, Macedonians at 6%, Montenegrins at 1% and the final 10% being a mix of various other small ethnicities.

As well as its religious and ethnic groups, a reunited Yugoslavia's linguistic groups would also be incredibly diverse too. Serbo-Croatian would be the most spoken language within the country's borders at 60% or just over half of the population speaking it. Albanian would be the next at 25%, followed by Slovenian at 12%. The final 3% of the population would be a mix of various other small languages being spoken within the country.

One specific official language for Yugoslavia would be quite difficult to predict, but I suspect there would be many different official languages, based on the most spoken.

The last topic we need to think about a reunited Yugoslavia is its military, which would of course be no disappointment as well. Starting off with manpower, the country would possess a small size of 76,450 active-duty personnel, which would be the 51st largest force in the world, larger than the militaries of other countries like Argentina (74,200 troops) and Singapore (72,500 troops), but smaller than Chile's (77,200 troops) and Peru's (81,000 troops).

Yugoslavia's budget to fund this military would be a sufficient amount, at a very modest $2.2 Billion, which would be the 68th highest in the world, larger than Nigeria's ($2.1 Billion) and Syria's ($2 Billion) budgets but slightly smaller than Azerbaijan's ($2.27 Billion) and Lebanon's ($2.3 Billion).

One downside to Yugoslavia's military, however, would be that they wouldn't possess any Nuclear Weapons of their own but could control a small arsenal of shared nukes if the country joined NATO but this would be highly unclear.