World Children's Day

World Children’s Day is 20 November. The day marks the adoption of the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959 and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 by the United Nations General Assembly. In 2024, the World Children's Day calls on adults to listen to the future. By listening to children, we can realise their right to express themselves, understand their ideas for a better world, and include their views in our activities today.

Fewer and fewer children

At the beginning of 2024, 377,804 children (0–17 years), 183,260 girls and 194,544 boys, were living in Slovenia, representing 18% of Slovenia’s population. The most common name for boys under the age of 18 is Luka, followed by Nik and Jakob. Among girls, the most common names are Eva, Ema and Zala. In the last thirty years, the number of children (0–17years) has decreased by almost a fifth.

Among EU Member States, at the beginning of 2023, Ireland (23%) and France (21%) had the highest shares of children under the age of 18, while Malta and Italy had the lowest (15% each).



Fewer children in families

In 2021, families with children accounted for 70% of all families in Slovenia. Half of children under the age of 18 lived with parents who were married. Every fourth child of this age lived with parents who lived in a consensual union. 23% of children lived with only one parent, most often with their mother.



Since 1981, the share of families with two or more children has decreased, while the share of families without children has increased (from 21% to 30%). In the past, one in three families had two children, today one in four. The share of large families, which in Slovenia includes families with three or more children, decreased from 10% to 6%. The share of families with one child remained about the same (37% in 1981, 39% in 2021). The average number of children in families with children decreased from 1.70 to 1.56.



In the EU the most common households with one child

In EU Member States, too, among households with children (0–17 years), households with one child are the most common. In 2023, almost half of households with children in the EU had one child (49%), 38% had two and 13% had three or more. Among households with children, households with one child were the most common type in all EU Member States, except for Ireland and the Netherlands, where the share of households with two children was higher.
The number of households with three or more children was the lowest. Their share in households with children was 23% in Ireland, 19% in Finland, 18% in Sweden, and under 10% in Bulgaria, Portugal, Italy, and Lithuania.

Most children were spending time with their parents several times a day

In Slovenia, 94% of children aged 0–17 were spending time with their parents several times a day in the period of one year before the survey (2021), e.g. during meals, playing, doing homework, walking, playing sports, talking, while 5% of children socialised with their parents in this way once a day, and 1% several times a week. As expected, this share was slightly lower (89%) for older children aged 16 and 17. In addition, a slightly smaller share (89%) of children who lived in the household with only one parent spent their time in this way several times a day.

On average in the EU, 3 out of 4 parents estimated that they spend enough time with their children. Among EU Member States, the share was highest in Italy (96%) and Bulgaria (95%), and lowest in France (62%) and Spain (65%).

Children are also at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion 

In 2023, almost 20 million children in the EU were at-risk-of-poverty or social exclusion, representing 24.8% of children under the age of 18. The highest values ​​were recorded by Romania (39%), Spain (35%), and Bulgaria (34%), and the lowest by Slovenia (11%) and Finland (14%).

4% of people in Slovenia could not afford to keep their home warm

In 2023, 2% of persons living in households with dependent children in Slovenia could not afford a meal containing meat, fish or a vegetarian equivalent every other day, which is less than the EU average (9%). The share of such persons was the largest in Romania (21%), and the smallest in Portugal (1%).

In Slovenia, 4% of persons who lived in households with dependent children could not afford to keep their home warm, which is less than the EU average (11%). The share of such persons was the largest in Portugal (25%), and the smallest in Luxembourg (2%).

Health of children is good

For almost three-quarters of children (74%) in Slovenia aged 0–15, parents or guardians in 2021 estimated that their general health was very good. This is 10 percentage points more than in 2017 (64%), when we also collected these data. For 24% of the children, their general health was assessed as good, and for 2% as average.

The health status of peers from EU Member States is also good. Parents in Greece (96%) and Cyprus (89%) rated their children's health the best (i.e. as very good), and in Latvia (30%) and Lithuania (52%) the worst. The EU average is 69%. 

More than half of children under the age of three involved in childcare or education

In Slovenia, 57% of children under the age of three were enrolled in pre-school education or childcare in 2023. In the EU, on average, 37% of children are involved in childcare or education. The share is the highest in the Netherlands (72%) and Denmark (70%), and the lowest in Slovakia (1%) and Czechia (4%). The new European strategy on early childhood education and care presented in 2022 includes, among other things, a recommendation (Barcelona goals for 2030) that at least 45% of children under the age of three are included in early childhood education and care. According to data for 2023, 11 Member States have already achieved this goal.