Slovakia‘s population fell by more than 10,000 people to stand at 5,409,407 as of the end of 2025, the fifth consecutive year that the country’s population has declined, according to the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic.
“Although Slovakia has experienced a population decline in recent years, the balance remains positive in the long-term perspective since 1993,” commented Zuzana Podmanická, director of the population statistics department. “Over three decades of independence, the country’s population has increased by nearly 73,000 persons.”
Downward trend
While the population has increased overall across the past three decades, the trend reversed in 2021 and has continued downward since then. The primary driver of the decline has been a sustained natural decrease, where the number of deaths exceeds the number of births.
In 2025, just over 42,000 children were born, while more than 53,500 deaths were recorded. This resulted in a natural decrease of approximately 11,500 people.
It marked the sixth consecutive year of natural population decline and the second highest level recorded since independence. Over the period from 2020 to 2025, natural decrease reduced the population by nearly 51,000.
“While in 2021 and 2022 the natural population decrease was driven primarily by the coronavirus pandemic, over the past three years the main contributing factor has been the critically low level of the total fertility rate,” Podmanická added.
Birth rates
Historically, Slovakia recorded more than 73,000 births annually in the years following independence. Birth numbers declined in the early 2000s before rising again between 2009 and 2011. However, the number of births has been falling steadily over recent years, with annual declines of between 2,000 and 4,000 in the past four years.
Migration helped to offset the population decline somewhat, the data showed. In 2025, approximately 6,400 people immigrated to Slovakia, while more than 4,900 emigrated. This resulted in a positive net migration of just under 1,500 people.
‘However, over the past five years, foreign migration has proven insufficient to offset population losses caused by natural decrease,’ the statistics body noted. Read more here.
