Republika Srpska
political-administrative entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina

Republika Srpska (Serbian Cyrillic: Република Српска [repǔblika sr̩̂pskaː] ; lit. 'Serb Republic'), or the Republic of Srpska, is one of the two political "entities" of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the other being the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Situated in the northern and eastern regions of the country, it recorded a population of 1,228,423 in the 2013 census. Its administrative centre and largest city is Banja Luka, located on the banks of the Vrbas River.
Republika Srpska was established in 1992 at the onset of the Bosnian War with the stated purpose of safeguarding the interests of the Serbs of Bosnia and Herzegovina. During the conflict, a majority of Croats and Bosniaks were expelled from territories controlled by Republika Srpska, while the majority of Serbs were displaced or expelled from the present-day Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina to Republika Srpska. The 1995 Dayton Agreement created Republika Srpska as one of Bosnia and Herzegovina's two constituent entities. Today, it is inhabited by most of the Serb population of the country.
Republika Srpska enjoys one of the broadest sets of prerogatives and competencies of any subnational entity in Europe, with powers that in many respects resemble those of a sovereign state rather than a purely subnational entity. It operates under a parliamentary system, with legislative power vested in the National Assembly, which comprises 83 seats. Republika Srpska is administratively divided into 64 municipalities, known as opštine (singular: opština).
The public source identifies “Republika Srpska” as political-administrative entity of Bosnia and Herzegovina. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Republika, Srpska and political-administrative.
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Vocabulary and entity names are the principal evidence signals here, because they determine the precision of every later search. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 21, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q11196. VIAF identifies the subject as 1156858469749780006. The Library of Congress control number is n97117415. Authority coordinates are 44.750, 17.317. 3 of 4 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2013, 1992 and 1995.
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This entry incorporates text from “Republika Srpska” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.