International Women's Day

One in four female residents is 65 or more years old

In the beginning of 2022, 1,049,485 women were living in Slovenia. They represented 49.8% of the country’s population. Almost two-thirds of female residents were between the ages 15 and 64 and a quarter were aged 65+. Life expectancy for women in 2021 was 84 years.



In terms of activity, at the beginning of 2022, 40% of all women were employed, 28% were retired.



The share of older women will continue to increase

Projections on population trends for Slovenia predict that the share of women aged 65 and over will increase over the next 40 years, while the share of girls up to the age of 15 will remain relatively constant. After 2040, for every girl up to the age of 15, there will be two women aged 65 or over. Women between the ages of 15 and 64 will represent slightly more than half of the total population. Three decades ago, in 1990, 20% of women were aged 14 or younger and 13% of women were aged 65 years or over. At that time women between the ages of 15 and 64 represented 67% of the total female population in Slovenia.




With increasing age, the at-risk-of-poverty rate increases for women more than for men. In 2022, 251,000 residents were below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold in Slovenia, 52% of whom were women. One in three women who lived below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold was aged 65 or over.

Two out of five female residents are in employment

The labour market participation of Slovenia’s female residents is above the EU-27 average. In 2021, the employment rate of women aged between 18 and 64 in Slovenia was 71%, while the EU-27 average was 66%. The share of women in Slovenia who worked part-time (13%) was less than half of the EU-27 average (29%).

In 2021, the employment rate of women in Slovenia, based on the number of children they have, was:

• 65% for women without children (EU average: 65%),
• 77% for mothers with one child (EU average: 68%),
• 83% for mothers with two children (EU average: 71%) and
• 81% for mothers with three or more children (EU average: 56%).

First employment at the age of 24

In 2021, the average age at first employment for women in Slovenia was 24 years, while the EU-27 average was 23. Women in Slovenia left the home of their parents at the age of 28, which is later than the EU-27 average (26 years). On the other hand, motherhood for women in Slovenia started at the age of 29, which is a year earlier than the EU-27 average (30 years).


 
One in four women in Slovenia lives with her partner and at least one child

Mothers, daughters, wives and other societal roles that women have are reflected through the different types of households in which they live. In 2021, most women, regardless of their age, lived in a household with their parents. Women who lived alone represented a tenth of all women in the country.




Every other woman aged between 25 and 64 has a tertiary education

In 2021, 48% of women in Slovenia between the ages of 25 and 64 had a tertiary education. The EU-27 average was 36%. In that year, about 10,000 women obtained a degree in Slovenia at any level of tertiary education, representing 60% of tertiary education graduates.

The largest share of women who obtained a degree at any level of tertiary education were studying business, administration and law (21%), followed by the field of health and welfare (17%).