Podravska, the second most populated statistical region, had 16% of Slovenia’s population in 2022. In terms of area, with 2,170 square kilometres it is the fifth largest region. Its population density was 151 inhabitants per square kilometre. The mean age of the population was 44.7 years. As in all other regions, this region also recorded a natural decrease (-3.7 per 1,000 population). However, due to the positive net migration between statistical regions and from abroad, the population in 2022 slightly increased over the previous year. Net migration was 6.9 per 1,000 population. The share of people aged 0–14 was the second lowest (13.9%); it was lower only in Pomurska (13.1%). In the region, 64.7% of children were born to unmarried mothers. Only two regions had higher shares: Pomurska and Koroška. The mean age of first-time mothers was 29.7 years. This region stood out in terms of the lowest share of married population aged 15+ (40.0%) and the second highest share of divorced residents with the same share (7.7%) as in Osrednjeslovenska. The share of the population (25–64 years) with basic education or less was the second lowest (10.8%), and was lower only in Osrednjeslovenska (10.0%). At 59.7%, the region had the second highest share of people with upper secondary education.
In 2022, the employment rate was second lowest in Slovenia (63.8%). At 5.1%, the LFS unemployment rate was the third highest at the regional level. 18.0% of persons in employment worked outside the region of residence, which is not much since only Osrednjeslovenska (10.3%) and Goriška (17.4%) had lower values. Average monthly net earnings of persons employed in the region amounted to EUR 1,858 and were 7% lower than the national average. The second lowest disposable income per capita was recorded in the region, EUR 14,454 or about 5% below the national average. The region generated 12.7% of the national GDP; GDP per capita was the seventh lowest in the country (EUR 22,045). The region had a little more than 29,500 enterprises with on average 4.6 persons employed.
The at-risk-of-poverty rate was among the highest; 14.6% of people lived below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. The overcrowding rate (13.4%) was the second highest at the regional level. There were 560 passenger cars per 1,000 population, which was 11 per 1,000 population fewer than the national average, and the cars were on average 10.9 years old, which was the same as the national average. In the region, 490 kg of municipal waste per capita was generated and 74.3% of it was collected separately. This ranked Podravska third in the country.