Yugoslavia at a glance

Area: 98,766 square miles, about the size of West Germany or Oregon. Population: 22 million. Six republics: Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Macedonia, plus two autonomous regions within Serbia: Vojvodina and Kosovo.

Nationalities: The six largest, all with more than 1 million population (in rank order, from largest): Serbs (including Montenegrins); Croats; Slovenes; Albanians; Macedonians; and the Serbian-speaking Muslims of Bosnia, who are by now also considered a separate nationality.

Main languages: Serbo-Croatian; Slovenian; Albanian; Macedonian.

Main religions: Orthodox (Serbian, Eastern, and Macedonian); Roman Catholic (in Croatia); and Islamic (in Bosnia, ever since mass conversions during the centuries of Turkish occupation).

Political system: One party, the League of Communists of Yugoslavia. A relatively weak federal government with considerable economic and veto powers reserved for the six republics. A unique collective ''presidency'' made up of one delegate from each republic and autonomous region, plus the chairman of the League of Communists. The president of the presidency rotates every year. Extensive decentralization, with the ideal being a ''delegate system'' built up from local and factory ''self-management.''

Economic system: A mixed socialist and free market, following President Tito's breakaway from Stalin in 1948. The central planning directorate was dissolved in 1951 and ''self-managed socialism'' was introduced. Decollectivization of farms was allowed. Numerous liberalizations and decentralizations later, some 98 percent of productive forces belong to the social sector, with only 2 percent private, mostly in the ''small economy'' of artisans, mechanics, restaurateurs, and small workshop manufacturers. Some 80 percent of cultivated land is owned by private farmers. Strikes are permitted, and press coverage of them is no longer taboo. There is no foreign trade monopoly. The dinar ($1 equals 33 dinars) is semiconvertible.

Foreign policy: Nonaligned with US or USSR. Member of United Nations, OECD, GATT, IMF. Observer in Comecon, with participation in several of its commissions. Duty-free access to European Community markets for about 70 percent of manufactured products so long as 50 percent of value is added in Yugoslavia.