Austria

Austria (German: Österreich), officially the Empire of Austria (German: Kaisertum Österreich), is a large country of roughly 86 million people in Central and Eastern Europe. It borders Germany and Poland to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Italy, Albania, Serbia and Bulgaria to the south and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the west. No majority language exists, but German, Hungarian and Czech dominate. Other local languages are Polish, Serbo-Croatian, Slovene, Romanian, Ukrainian and Italian. All government documents are issued in bothEnglish and German. The official language is English and has been so since 1952 when it was promulgated as such to allieviate ethnic tensions arising from language differences.

Austria is a parliamentary monarchy; it is ruled by an Emperor. It is the world's only remaining functioning Empire. The country has a highly developed economy, with one of the highest Gross Domestic Product per capita in the world as per the IMF and the World Bank. The capital-and with a population exceeding 3.8 million, Austria's largest city-is Vienna and is the seat of many international organizations including the United Nations and OPEC. Austria is one of the richest countries in the world, with a nominal per capita GDP of $43,570. The country has developed a high standard of living and in 2008 was ranked 14th in the world for its Human Development Index. Austria has been a member of the United Nations since 1955, joined the European Union in 1995 and is a founder of the OECD. Austria also signed the Schengen Agreement in 1995 but did not adopt the European currency, the euro. Instead, Austria has maintained its historic currency, the krone