Households and families, Slovenia, 1st January 2021

98% of residents lived in private households

On 1 January 2021, 2,108,977 residents lived in 859,782 private households (98% of the population) in Slovenia and 2% residents lived in 682 institutional and other households. The largest group living in institutional households were people in old people's homes (16,000 out of 33,000 persons living in institutional households).

The average household had 2.41 members

Most households (462,744 or 54%) consisted of one family. There were 292,301 one-person households or one in three (34%). In every 20th (5%) household, in addition to the family, there was at least one other person who, according to the statistical definition, is not considered as a family member. In every 25th (4%) household there were two families or more.

Since 2011, the number of households increased by 46,000 (6%), in the last three years by 35,000 (4%). The household size also changed: in the last decade, the number of two-person, one-person and large households with 6 or more members went up. On the other hand, the number of households with 3, 4 or 5 members went down.

One in three households had one member

Every 7th resident of Slovenia lived in a one-member household in 2021. The number of men living alone was slightly larger than the number of women (52% vs 48%). Up to the age of 63, male one-person households predominated, whereas among persons aged 64 or more, there were more female one-person households. Women living alone were on average 64.7 years old and were 13.4 years older than men living alone.

Many one-person households consisted of foreign citizens: there were 43,848 male one-person households (40% of all men with foreign citizenship) and 5,017 female ones (9% of all women with foreign citizenship). Male one-person foreign citizen households predominated among one-person households between ages 21-27.

The number of households increased due to large positive net migration in the last three years and the increase in internal migration in 2020 due to the measures taken to contain the spread of COVID-19. A large part of these internal migrations probably happened even before, but residents failed to register their change of address at the administrative unit for whatever reason. In addition, after 2011 housing built just before the 2008 economic crisis has been sold and inhabited. All this has affected population redistribution and changes in the number and composition of households, and consequently changes in the composition of families.

An average family had 2.9 members

On 1 January 2021, there were 587,448 families in Slovenia: 412,534 (70%) families with children and 174,914 (30%) families without them. 1,683,791 (80%) residents lived in different types of families. Since 2011, the number of families increased by 20,000 (in the last three years by 10,000).

Married couple with children still the most common family type

The most common family type in 2021 was a married couple with children (202,458 or 35% of all families). This is the only family type whose number has been falling for more than three decades.

The second most common family type, every 4th family (25%), was a married couple without children.

The third most common family type was a lone-parent family. This type of family represented 23% of all families and 33% of families with children. Most of the lone-parent families (80%) are mothers with children. Compared to 2011, the share of lone-parent families decreased slightly, mainly due to a decrease in the last three years. One of the reasons was probably the regulation of residence addresses due to measures related to the prevention of COVID-19 disease. We estimate that in the past the share of lone-parent families was actually lower. Every eight lone mother and every fourth lone father in 2021 were formally married.

The fourth most common family type was an unmarried couple with children (13% of all families). In the past ten years the number increased by half (to 73,803).

In the last decade, the number of unmarried couples without children (5% of all families) increased the most. The increase can also be associated with the regulation of residence addresses during the COVID-19 epidemic.

Same-sex partnerships have been statistically monitored in Slovenia since 2015. In 2021, there were 255 such families; 203 were without children and 52 were with children.

Most families with children had one child

There were 412,534 families with children and 645,116 children were living in them. Most families had only one child (55%), followed by families with two children (36%). There were 1,543 families with 5 or more children and 16 families with 10 children or more.

On 1 January 2021, an average family in Slovenia had 1.10 children (1.56 children if we take into account only families with children). On average, most children (1.69 per family) lived in married couple families, followed by unmarried couple families (1.63). The number of children per family was the lowest in municipalities Šalovci (1.36) and Lendava (1.39) and the highest in municipalities Gorenja vas – Poljane (1.98), Železniki (1.84) and Horjul (1.83).

On average, the youngest children were living with unmarried parents (11.2 years), and the oldest in lone-parent families (23.5 years). A child in a family is according to the census methodology not determined by age. Consequently, even people aged 75 or more are considered as children if they live with their parent(s) and do not have their own families. In 2021, there were 26 lone-parent families where the child was 75 or more years old. The oldest children who lived with both parents were 70 years old.