Slovakia‘s population fell for the fourth consecutive year in 2024, with the country’s population standing at 5,419,451 as of the end of the year, a decrease of 5,200 people year-on-year.
According to data from Slovakia’s statistics office, mortality rates remain in line with long-term averages, however there has been a ‘sharp drop’ in birth rates.
Over the past year, around 54,000 people died in Slovakia, but just over 46,000 children were born, resulting in a natural population decrease of 7,600 – the fifth year in a row in which this has been the case, and a decline only topped by the pandemic year of 2021.
Decreasing birth rate
“In total, Slovakia lost almost 40,000 inhabitants through natural movement in the last five years,” commented Zuzana Podmanická, director of the Population Statistics Department of the Statistical Office of the SR. “After a period of high mortality in Slovakia in 2020-2022, affected by the pandemic, the birth rate has been significantly decreasing in the last three years.”
According to the statistics office, the birth rate in Slovakia has been falling for several decades – it saw a decline in the 1990s, before temporarily increasing between 2003 and 2009, and then resuming its downward trend.
Longer-term trends show that birth rates were highest following the two world wars and in the late 1970s, when more than 100,000 children were born each year. In contrast, the birth rate in 2024 was less than half of that.
“The birth rate in Slovakia in 2024 reached an unprecedentedly low value, not only in the modern history of the independent Slovak Republic, but also in the last 100 years,” Podmanická added.
Migration balance
Another factor influencing Slovakia’s population is migration – in 2024, more than 6,800 people immigrated to the country for permanent residence, exceeding the number of emigrants by nearly 2,400.
The migration balance was higher than in previous years and has remained positive since Slovakia’s independence, the data showed. Read more here.
