Editing Yugoslavia (section)

== Economy and society ==

The interwar economy remained largely agricultural. Industrial production was concentrated around Belgrade, Zagreb, Ljubljana, northern Serbia, Slovenia, and parts of Croatia and Bosnia. Economic conditions differed widely between the more industrialised northern and western regions and the rural southern interior.

After 1945, the government nationalised major industries, banks, transport systems, mines, and large commercial enterprises. Reconstruction was followed by investment in manufacturing, mining, electricity generation, transport, housing, public education, and healthcare.

Worker self-management gave enterprise councils a role in production and employment decisions. The economy combined state and social ownership with limited market mechanisms. Yugoslav companies exported machinery, vehicles, ships, chemicals, metals, textiles, and consumer goods. Adriatic tourism and employment abroad provided additional foreign income.

Yugoslavia contained several South Slavic peoples as well as Albanian, Hungarian, Romanian, Turkish, Roma, Slovak, Italian, Rusyn, and other communities. Serbo-Croatian was the most widely used language. Slovene and Macedonian held official status within their republics, while Albanian and several minority languages had official or recognised use in designated areas.

Orthodox Christianity, Roman Catholicism, and Islam were the largest religious traditions. Religious and cultural patterns differed between the Adriatic coast, the Pannonian lowlands, the central mountain regions, Macedonia, Kosovo, and the major urban centres.