According to data from the Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic, the country’s population is decreasing for the fifth year in a row and the pace is accelerating. In 2025, the second highest number of inhabitants moved out of Slovakia since the creation of an independent state in 1993.
The report of the statistical office on demographic development states that in 2025 there were over 5.4 million inhabitants in Slovakia.
“Since the establishment of the Slovak Republic, the population has increased every year. However, the trend reversed in 2021 and the population has been decreasing for five years in a row. The development in 2025 represented the second most significant decrease in the population in the history of independent Slovakia, right after 2021,” the statisticians said.
The main factor in population decline in 2025 was natural decline, when 42,000 children were born, but over 53,000 people died. In the last four years, the number of births has decreased by two to four thousand children every year. The gross birth rate also reaches a record low value, reaching the level of 776 births per 100,000 inhabitants in 2025.
The lowest in a hundred years
According to Zuzana Podmanická, director of the department of statistics, the gross birth rate in Slovakia in 2025 reached the lowest level in the last hundred years. At the same time, she pointed out that despite the decrease in the number of inhabitants over the last five years, the balance of the Slovak Republic since 1993 is still favorable in the historical horizon.
“During the three decades of independence, the country’s population grew by almost 73,000,” Podmanická added.
In 2025, almost 6,400 people immigrated to Slovakia and over 4,900 people emigrated, which represents the second highest number of people evicted from the Slovak Republic since 1993. In the last five years, however, the number of immigrants could not compensate for the population losses caused by natural population decline.
