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Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika)
 * Official name **

Vilnius
 * Capital of the country **

**Population** 3,535,547 (July 2011 est.)

Lithuania has a Parliamentary democracy. Their head of government is the Premier Andrius Kubilius. The chief of state is the President Dalia Grybauskaite. The constitution was adopted in 25 October 1992 and last amended in 13 July 2004. The Lithuanian constitution is composed of a collection of three documents. The constitution conceits of the Constitution of Lithuania, the constitutional law On the State of Lithuania, and the constitutional act On the Non-Alignment of the Republic of Lithuania with post-Soviet Eastern Alliances. The constitution is an essential to the Lithuanian government. Lithuania has 10 counties that are divided into 44 districts. The districts contain 423 apylinkes, they act as the local government. There are 92 cities, that includes 11 independent cities and 22 urban communities. In the executive system the head of state is the president of the Republic of Lithuania. The president is elected by the people and survices five year term and can be reelected only once. Only citizen of the Republic of Lithuania can be a candidate. They must be born in Lithuania and have lived in Lithuania for at least the past three years and has reached 40 years old before the election. The president controls who are the foreign diplomats and representatives to foreign states. The president can hirer and firer the head of the armed forces, the head of the security service prime and with the Seimas’s approval minister and cabinet ministers.They also sign and make laws enacted by the Seimas publicly known.The president nominates the chief justice, three other justices of the Constitutional Court, and all justices of the Supreme Courtand, the Seimas approves the nomination.The administration is has the power to approve the Seimas programs. The administration, works under the control of the Seimas, if its program is rejected by the Seimas they must resign. If more than half the Seimas have a secret ballot vote and have a lack of confidence in the minister they must resign.In the legislative system there are 141 members in the Seimas that are elected and services a four-year term. To be elected to the Seimas, a citizen must not bound by pledge to a another state, be 25 years old or over on the day of the election and live in Lithuania. The Seimas decides legislation of the state however, the president can veto its legislation. If the Seimas does not approve the administration's budget within 60 days or if it shows lack of confidence in the government the president can over power the Seimas .In Lithuania the judicial system is independent from legislative and executive branches. The Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, and county, district, and administrative courts are courts that are held in Lithuania. The president, one-fifth of the Seimas, the administration, and ordinary courts have the right to appeal to the Constitutional Court. Constitutional Court judges are nominated for one nine years term. Any decision made by the Constitutional Court are final and can not be changed or appealed. All Lithuanians that are 18 years of age or over on election day have the right to vote. The only people that can’t vote are people the court finds legally incapable.
 * Government**

**People** The nation's population consis of 81 percent ethnic Lithuanians, 8.5 percent Russians, 7 percent Poles. There are also Belarusians, Ukrainians, Germans, Gypsies, and Jews. Ethnic Lithuanians ancestors are the Balts, they migrated to the shores of the Baltic Sea around 2000 BCE. The Samogitians and the Aukstaitiai were the primary Baltic tribes live in the area during the twelfth century. When the King Jogaila married the Polish Crown Princess during the fourteenth century, the two tribes found themselves linked to the Polish under the Catholic King Jogaila. The royal marriage help push the formal union in the 1569 Treaty of Lublin. Lithuania's Baltic was strongly influenced by Polish culture as a result of the longstanding ties to Poland, mosty among upper classes. After an invasion by Russia's Ivan the Terrible in 1558, Lithuania and Poland had to fight off Russian, German, and Swedish territorial expansion and cultural influences for 450-year. Lithuania became the most ethnically homogeneous people in Europe do to the many cultural influences. Most of Lithuania speaks High Lithuanian, but in the west speak their dialect is called Low Lithuanian. The majority religions are Roman Catholicism dominates; more than 80 percent of the people are Catholic. There are also 47 other religious denominations in the nation. There are 684 Catholic parishes and 58 Russian Old Believer and 41 Russian Orthodox congregations.Also, there are a few Lutheran denominations and around five Jewish congregations. One holiday celebrated in Lithuania is the Anniversary of the Coronation of King Mindaugas. It is observed by general public on July 6. King Mindaugas was the first king of Lithuania. He was a Aukstaitiai tribesman, who united the fighting tribes in Lithuania to fight the Livonians. In 1236 the Battle of Siauliai was won under Mindaugas leadership. In 1250 he signed the Teutonic Order peace treaty then embraced Christianity.He was crowned king of Lithuania on July 6, 1253. On this day Lithuanians honor their king with special celebration in the capital city of Vilnius, which is supervised by the president. Medals of Honor are bestowed upon brave Lithuanians. In Lithuania, birthdays are very important and they are planned out celebrations. Children celebrate their birthdays and elders celebrate their name days. A garland is placed on a boy or girl door on their birthdays. The birthday girl or boy sits on a specially chair then it is lifted in the air three times. In Lithuania, a girl comes of age when she gets her first menstrual period. She then participates in a private ritual rite with her mother where the mother slaps her daughter on the face and says "be beautiful" or "bloom like a rose." Then after mother reveals the mystery of birth the girl is now fit to get married. In ancient times a girl was required to do the baking of bread. In accordance with the ritual, the girl would bake her first bread on Saturday, then she sierves the bread to the female relatives in the pirtis (a Lithuanian bathhouse). The father of the girl declared the girl ready to marry and discussed it with female relatives after the girl could get married. For boys, the initiation ceremony they were placed in communities with other men their same age that share their interests. The behavior of the boys collective community represent for the village. Their could not disgraced the village or the other villages would not want their daughters married in to there disgraced village.

Lithuania practice market reforms and have strict money and taxing policies in order to control economy.They strive to meet the International Monetary Fund (IMF) criteria. Service is the largest employer, industry and agriculture are the second largest in the private companies. Machine tools, electric motors, petroleum refining, shipbuilding, textiles, consumer durable goods, and amber make up the main industries in Lithania. Agricultural products, mineral products, textiles, and machinery are the main exports. Mainly they import mineral products, machinery, metals, fuel sources, transport equipment, and chemicals. Lithuania on average trades with Russia, Germany, Poland, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, United Kingdom, Denmark, and the Netherlands.Lithuania is having a GDP growth of 8 percent per year for the last four years, there is a 4.8 percent unemployment estimate. Lithuania is part of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the European Union (EU). Women in are not respected in Lithuania. Domestic violence is abuse is common in Lithuania, and there is no system in place for this department. A survey taken in 1997 showed that 20 percent of women reported attempted rape, while 33 percent have reported they have been beaten at least once. In the workplace Women face discrimination. Lithuania has The Law on Realization of Equal Rights 1999 that is supposed to give women and men equal opportunity. The Office of the Ombudsman for Equal Opportunities for Women and Men to oversee ishores about sex discrimination and sexual harassment. Women are vastly underrepresented in business, mosty in the management and government level. Trafficking is a major problem in Lithuania. Women are lure by organized crime figures lies of being model, bar dancer, or waitresses.Children most go to school for 12 years in Lithuania. Lithuania schools follow a basic European program that gives them the choice to continue their education in local university or a technical degree for the trades. Lithuania has over 2,000 private and public school, that includes 21 universities, 15 colleges, and 83 vocational schools.On average 40 percent of all students go on to higher education. The government will fund about 75 percent of the costs of a students college fees. Lithuania was ranked 41st out of 177 countries in terms of life expectancy, education, and standard of living in the UN Human Development Report. The life expectancy was 74 years, literacy came at 99.6 percent, with a 90 percent of eligible students enrolled in schools in 2004. Lithuanian towns has been rebuild after World War II with weak materials that have broken down over time. The housing is a big problem in the country. The country’s population has declined due to smaller families and less Russians coming in to the country. In 2001, around 68 percent of the population lived in urban areas.The Infrastructure of Lithuania is badly in need of help, eventhough in their have well developed roads, airports, and ports. The Ministry of Health, councils, or counties run the nonprofit public institutions health care. The Compulsory Health Insurance Fund pays for citizens and residents of Lithuania. The country suffers for Cardiovascular disease as a main health problems, they also suffer from tuberculosis and cancer. The Public Health Surveillance Service was established in 1994 to monitor the county’s communicable diseases, environmental and occupational health to keep the county self. Public health-care was expended to an estimated amount of 4.3 percent of GDP as of 2002.
 * Society**

**Geography** Lithuania is Baltic region in the northeastern of Europe. The coastline is 99 km, and the country borders Belarus, Latvia, Poland, and the Kaliningrad.Lithuania has a total of 65,200 sq km land area. The two main topographies are lowland plains and uplands marked by rolling hills. The Juozapines Hill, is the highest point in Lithuania at 292 m. The Courland Spit is made by the Baltic Sea in south Courland Lagoon. 1.5 percent of Lithuania's total area is dominated by small lakes, incuding there are 722 rivers. These rivers run though the Middle Lowlands.One-third of the nation is covered by woodlands because of rich soil. The largest city is the capital, Vilnius, Kaunas is the second-largest city. Klaipėda, Šiauliai, and Panevėžys Ov are other major cities. Lithuania has ongoing dispute over their border with Latvia and Belarus. The nation was able to come to a border agreement with Russia in 1997. Almost one-third of Lithuania is covered in forest such as pine, oak, aspen, black alder, and birch. There are nearly 70 mammals species, for example rabbit, wolf, fox, deer, otter, beaver, mink, wild boar, raccoon, elk, lynx, and wild boar. Almost 300 bird species are found in Lithuania, including herons, hawks, geese, ducks, grouse, partridge, and, along the coast, cormorants. Vast number of fish species and amphibians make their homes in and near the country's small lakes. Continental and maritime weather influenced Lithuania's climate. Mild maritime influence the coastal region weather, while harsher continental climate dominate in the eastern areas of the nation. Lithuania has four seasons with different temperature changes. They have mild or moderately warm springs and summers, and long and cold autumns and winters. The least precipitation falls in The Middle Lowlands, and the most is in the southwestern slopes of the Aukštaitija.