International Migrants Day
The main reason for first residence permits in Slovenia was employment
Net migration to Slovenia was strongly positive (16,213), mainly due to immigration from the countries of former Yugoslavia, while, on the other hand, 2,533 more inhabitants emigrated from Slovenia to other EU Member States in 2019 than immigrated from them.
The International Migrants Day was established in 2000. December 18 was selected in memory of the adoption of the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families in 1990 by the United Nations Assembly. We decided to take this opportunity to review immigration and emigration statistics for Slovenia and place it in the context of the European Union.
Slovenia has been recording high population growth since 2018, which is a result of high immigration
In Slovenia, compared to previous years, net migration (when we subtract the number of emigrants from the number of immigrants) jumped sharply in 2018. This trend continued in 2019, when net migration was 7.8 per 1,000 people, which put us in fifth place in the EU, ahead of Belgium and Sweden. The reason for such high growth is immigration, as the emigration rate has not changed significantly in recent years. The result of a higher level of immigration is the growth of the population of Slovenia: in July 2020, we already had more than 2.1 million residents.
One of the main reasons for migration is pursuit of better employment opportunities in the target country of immigration. As in many other European countries, immigration to Slovenia is solving specific labour market shortages. We can see that migration flows to and from Slovenia are strongly related to economic growth and job vacancies, as net migration was the highest in the years of high economic and employment growth (2008, 2018 and 2019), while at a time of high unemployment it was very low or even negative (2010 and 2014).
The main reason for first residence permits in Slovenia was employment
With 15 first residence permits issued per 1,000 population, Slovenia ranked 4th in the EU in 2019, behind only Malta, Cyprus and Poland.
For immigrants from non-EU countries, the main reason for new residence permits in 2018 was employment (64,6%), followed by family reasons (26,5%) and schooling (8,4%). This ranked Slovenia well above the EU average, where employment was the reason for only 40,5% of first residence permits.
The vast majority of immigrants came from the countries of former Yugoslavia
In 2019, as many as 78.5% of immigrants came from the countries of former Yugoslavia, which is the highest share since 2008, when it was 82.7%. By far the largest share of immigrants from former Yugoslavia came from Bosnia and Herzegovina (56,9%), followed by Serbia (16,3%) and Kosovo (14,2%).
Net migration was strongly positive, mainly due to immigration from the countries of former Yugoslavia, while, on the other hand, more people (7,903) emigrated from Slovenia to other EU Member States in 2019 than immigrated from them (5,370).
Life satisfaction in Slovenia is slightly lower among immigrants than among the general population, but the gap has narrowed over the last five years
In Slovenia, general life satisfaction has been increasing among all categories of the population for the last five years, but in 2019 it was still slightly lower among immigrants (7.3 on a scale from 0 to 10) than among the general population (7.5). The chart shows that the difference has decreased in the last five years (from 0.6 to 0.2).
The trend of immigration to Slovenia has been extremely positive since 2018. What will be the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on this trend will be seen next year, when data for 2020 will be available.
NEXT RELEASE: Data on socioeconomic characteristics of international migrants (2019) and population (as of 1 January 2020) will be released on 18 December 2020.
Slovenia has been recording high population growth since 2018, which is a result of high immigration
In Slovenia, compared to previous years, net migration (when we subtract the number of emigrants from the number of immigrants) jumped sharply in 2018. This trend continued in 2019, when net migration was 7.8 per 1,000 people, which put us in fifth place in the EU, ahead of Belgium and Sweden. The reason for such high growth is immigration, as the emigration rate has not changed significantly in recent years. The result of a higher level of immigration is the growth of the population of Slovenia: in July 2020, we already had more than 2.1 million residents.
One of the main reasons for migration is pursuit of better employment opportunities in the target country of immigration. As in many other European countries, immigration to Slovenia is solving specific labour market shortages. We can see that migration flows to and from Slovenia are strongly related to economic growth and job vacancies, as net migration was the highest in the years of high economic and employment growth (2008, 2018 and 2019), while at a time of high unemployment it was very low or even negative (2010 and 2014).
The main reason for first residence permits in Slovenia was employment
With 15 first residence permits issued per 1,000 population, Slovenia ranked 4th in the EU in 2019, behind only Malta, Cyprus and Poland.
For immigrants from non-EU countries, the main reason for new residence permits in 2018 was employment (64,6%), followed by family reasons (26,5%) and schooling (8,4%). This ranked Slovenia well above the EU average, where employment was the reason for only 40,5% of first residence permits.
The vast majority of immigrants came from the countries of former Yugoslavia
In 2019, as many as 78.5% of immigrants came from the countries of former Yugoslavia, which is the highest share since 2008, when it was 82.7%. By far the largest share of immigrants from former Yugoslavia came from Bosnia and Herzegovina (56,9%), followed by Serbia (16,3%) and Kosovo (14,2%).
Net migration was strongly positive, mainly due to immigration from the countries of former Yugoslavia, while, on the other hand, more people (7,903) emigrated from Slovenia to other EU Member States in 2019 than immigrated from them (5,370).
Life satisfaction in Slovenia is slightly lower among immigrants than among the general population, but the gap has narrowed over the last five years
In Slovenia, general life satisfaction has been increasing among all categories of the population for the last five years, but in 2019 it was still slightly lower among immigrants (7.3 on a scale from 0 to 10) than among the general population (7.5). The chart shows that the difference has decreased in the last five years (from 0.6 to 0.2).
The trend of immigration to Slovenia has been extremely positive since 2018. What will be the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on this trend will be seen next year, when data for 2020 will be available.
NEXT RELEASE: Data on socioeconomic characteristics of international migrants (2019) and population (as of 1 January 2020) will be released on 18 December 2020.
When making use of the data and information of the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia, always add: "Source: SURS". More: Copyright.
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