Slovakia vs Slovenia

Why people mix them up

The names are the main culprit: both start with "Slov-", both are small Central European countries that only appeared on the map in the early 1990s, and both fly a white-blue-red horizontal tricolour with a coat of arms near the hoist. Slovakia left Czechoslovakia in 1993, Slovenia left Yugoslavia in 1991, so even their back stories sound alike. Add that they are only a few hundred kilometres apart, both use the euro and both have Austria and Hungary as neighbours, and the confusion is understandable.

How to tell them apart

• Slovakia is landlocked; Slovenia has a short stretch of Adriatic coast around Koper and Piran.
• Slovakia sits north of Hungary; Slovenia sits west of Hungary, wedged between Italy, Austria and Croatia.
• Slovakia is more than twice the size: about 49,000 km² and 5.4 million people, against Slovenia's roughly 20,000 km² and 2.1 million.
• Slovakia's coat of arms is a white double cross on three blue hills; Slovenia's shows the three-peaked Mount Triglav with three gold stars and wavy lines for the sea.
• The capitals are Bratislava (Slovakia) and Ljubljana (Slovenia). Bratislava lies on the Danube, almost touching the Austrian border.
• Slovakia borders Czechia and Poland; Slovenia borders Italy and Croatia, two countries Slovakia never touches.

Memory hook

Slov-A-kia is Above Hungary; Slov-E-nia is at the Edge of the sea. The longer name belongs to the bigger country.

On the map

For Slovakia, start from Hungary and tap the long, thin country directly north of it, between Czechia and Ukraine. For Slovenia, find the top of the Adriatic Sea where Italy's boot meets Croatia; the small country tucked into that corner, just south of Austria, is Slovenia. If what you are tapping has no coastline at all, it is Slovakia.