Slovakia Population 2023 (Live)

Slovakia is currently growing at a rate of just 0.2% per year. A recent Gallup poll in May 2014 fond that, if immigration were unregulated and all Slovaks who wish to move abroad did, while all foreigners who wanted to live in Slovakia moved to the country, the population would still drop by 14%.

Slovakia Population Growth

As an extremely new country, there has not been much time for Slovakia to gain enough traction to see significant growth or any kind of a pattern. The growth rate has been just slightly above zero since its independence, and it is very difficult to assign any causation to this. As of 2019, the annual growth rate was 0.02%.

Slovakia Population Projections

The growth rate near zero is expected to continue, but in the negative direction in the years to come, although it will not likely be any more drastic than the growth has been and the actual population numbers will not likely change very much. Current projections believe that the growth rate will hit a slight peak in 2020 at 0.04% before dropping half of a percentage point to -0.45% in 2050. These same predictions say that the population of Slovakia will be 5,451,400 in 2020, 5,387,458 in 2030, 5,192,521 in 2040 and 4,964,542 in 2050.

Slovakia Area and Population Density

The landlocked Central European country of Slovakia covers 18,933 square miles (49,035 square kilometers) of area, which ranks 131st in the world in terms of size. The land itself is very mountainous, especially in the Northern part of the country, and 41% of the land is covered in forested. As of 2017, Slovakia had a population of 5.435 million people, giving it a population density is 287 people per square mile (111 people per square kilometer), which ranks 74th in the world, although the density is roughly ten times higher in the capital city of Bratislava, where 1,131 people live per square kilometer.

Largest Cities in Slovakia

Slightly more than half of the people living in Slovakia reside in or close to major urban centers, and there are a few cities and towns that account for these numbers. The capital and largest city is Bratislava, with a population of 583,600. Bratislava is located on the Danube river, close to the borders of both Hungary and Austria. Aside from being the capital, Bratislava is also the tourism and cultural center in Slovakia. Košice is the second-largest city with 355,047 residents. Near the Hungarian border, Košice is located along the Hornád river near the Slovak Ore Mountains. The only other city with a population exceeding 100,000 is the rapidly growing northwest city of Žilina. Other notable towns include Prešov and Nitra.

Slovakia Demographics

The 2011 census found that most residents are Slovaks (80.7%), with Hungarians representing the second-largest ethnic group (8.5%). Other groups include Roma (2%), Czechs (0.6%), and Rusyns (0.6%), although unofficial estimates put the Roma population at 9%. Prior to World War II, there were 135,000 Jews in the country. Today, there are just 2,300 Jews in Slovakia.

Slovakia Religion, Economy and Politics

Most people living in Slovakia practice some form of Christianity. 62% of Slovaks are Roman Catholics, followed by Protestants (8.9%), Greek Catholics (3.8%), Orthodox (0.9%), 0.3% Jehovah's Witnesses, and atheist (13.4%). The remaining 11.1% of people have a different religion or did not specify one. Although the majority of Slovaks identify as Christian, only a third of them regularly practice and attend church. In 2016 a bill was passed that required religions to have at least 50,000 participants to be recognized officially by the state.

The economy in Slovakia has been changing in recent years, as they joined the EU in 2004 and began using the euro in 2009, which contributed to a substantial increase in their GDP and a doubling of the amount of tourism coming into the country. Foreign investment in the country is also high due to the skilled and inexpensive workforce. The service sector is the largest division of the Slovak economy, employing 69% of the population and accounting for 61% of the GDP.

As a representative democracy, the government of Slovakia has the public elect the individuals working in politics. The rule of law is carried out by a multi-party parliamentary system that is overseen by both the president and the prime minister. The executive branch is lead by the president, who is elected for a five-year term that they cannot have for more than two terms. The president appoints the Prime Minister, 3 constitutional court judges, and 3 judicial council members. The prime minister is in charge of the government and the Cabinet of Ministers. The legislative branch of government is the 150-member National Council, and the judicial branch is comprised of two courts: Supreme and Constitutional. Below the Supreme court are district, regional and military courts.

Slovakia Population History

The Slavs, ancestors of the Slovaks, arrived in the area in the 5th or 6th century. After WW II and the dissolution of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Slovaks and Czechs created a mutual state, Czechoslovakia, until Slovakia became an independent state in 1993 and Czechoslovakia was dissolved peacefully. Slovakia was integrated into the EU in 2003, and into NATO in 2004.