The population of the SR decreased again, mainly due to a record low birth rate

Last year, Slovakia recorded a decline in its total population for the fourth consecutive year. While mortality has stabilized within long-term averages, the sharp drop in birth rates continued. Although the number of immigrants still exceeded the number of emigrants, it was unable to compensate for the natural population decrease.

At the end of 2024, the Slovak Republic had a total of 5 419 451 inhabitants, a year-on-year decrease by more than 5 200 people. The population of the SR has thus decreased for the fourth consecutive year, which is the first longer-lasting period of total population decrease since the establishment of an independent Slovak Republic 1). The development was mainly influenced by the natural population decrease due to the a low birth rate.

The total number of inhabitants in the country is influenced by two basic indicators – natural increase/decrease as the difference between the number of live births and deaths and then migration increase/decrease, which is the difference between the number of immigrants and emigrants to the country.

Natural decrease for the fifth consecutive year

The decrease in the number of SR inhabitants was mainly the natural population decrease. Over the past year, almost 54 thousand people died in the SR, but only slightly more than 46 thousand children were born alive2). This resulted in a natural population decrease of 7.6 thousand people. Slovakia recorded a natural decrease for the fifth year in a row, and it was its second highest value in the history of independent Slovakia. The decrease reached a higher value only in 2021, when demographic indicators were affected by the record high number of deaths caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"In total, Slovakia lost almost 40 000 inhabitants through natural movement in the last 5 years. 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," stated Zuzana Podmanická, the Director of the Population Statistics Department of the Statistical Office of the SR.

We have been monitoring the trend of a decline in the number of live births in Slovakia for the last 7 years, but these were only moderate values that did not indicate a fundamental change in the development trend. The significant drop in the number of births in the last three years, with values below 50 000 children in the last

Historically low birth rate

The birth rate in Slovakia has undergone significant demographic changes since the establishment of the Slovak Republic in 1993. After a sharp decline in the 1990s, the birth rate increased again year-on-year between 2003 and 2009, before starting to decline again after 2010. In the last two years, it has reached historical lows with values well below 50 000 live births per year.

In the long term, the birth rate curve in Slovakia peaked after the two world wars and at the end of the 1970s, when more than 100 000 live births were born in Slovakia, today there are less than half of them.

This decline is also reflected in the crude birth rate, which allows for a comparison of developments over a long period of time, including periods when the total population in the country has changed significantly. Over the past 20 years, this indicator has reached a value of more than 1 000 live births per 100 000 inhabitants. For the first time, the indicator dropped below 1 000 children in 2022, and last year it decreased to a record low of 853 children per 100 000 inhabitants. "The crude 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," explained Zuzana Podmanická.

Migration in positive numbers, but insufficient

The second factor influencing the total population in the country is foreign migration. The migration balance has remained in positive figures for a long time. In 2024, more than 6.8 thousand people immigrated to Slovakia for permanent residence, which was almost 2.4 thousand more than the number of emigrants.

The migration increase was significantly higher than in the previous two years. Since the founding of the Slovak Republic, the number of immigrants has exceeded the number of emigrants every year, by 0.9 to 7.1 thousand people. However, in the last four years, foreign migration has been unable to compensate for the losses caused by natural population decline.