STA, 17 July 2021 - Slovenia recorded what is the highest positive net migration since 2008 last year as almost 18,400 people more moved in than out. The Statistics Office says part of the reason for the increase is administrative changes in the population register.
Last year 36,110 people moved into Slovenia and 17,745 moved out, which marks an increase of 15% and 17%, respectively, compared with the year before.
The number of Slovenian citizens moving their permanent residence to Slovenia trebled to 11,360, which was due to cessation of temporary residence abroad under new provisions of the residence registration act.
Under those provisions, temporary address abroad ceased to 22,248 individuals ex officio as of 13 August 2020. Under the existing statistical methodology, 18,500 of those individuals would be included in the population and immigration count in 2020.
However, using different additional data sources, especially those that define the person's activity status from which it is possible to assume the person's actual residence in Slovenia, the statisticians eventually included fewer than 7,500 of those people in the final population count (among them 97% Slovenian citizens and 3% foreigners).
The Statistics Office says the majority of those residents most likely immigrated to Slovenia years or even decades ago, but failed to register their return at the administrative unit for some reason.
Net migration of foreign nationals was positive for the 22nd year in a row. Last year, 12,816 more foreigners moved into Slovenia than out.
Most of the Slovenian citizens that moved to Slovenia had previously resided in Germany or Austria (29% and 18% respectively), followed by Italy, Croatia and Switzerland.
Nearly half of all foreign immigrants in 2020 (46%) came from Bosnia-Herzegovina, followed by those from Kosovo, Serbia, North Macedonia and Croatia.
Last year, 5,811 Slovenian citizens moved out, 12% fewer than in 2019. A quarter (24%) left for Austria with another fifth (19%) moving to Germany.
The Statistics Office also recorded 127,052 internal migrants changing their place of residence within the country a total of 140,223 times last year, an increase of 42% compared with 2019.
This was as 12,461 residents changed their place of residence more than once.
6% of Slovenian population changed their place of residence at least once; one out of nine foreign citizens moved at least once, but only one in twenty Slovenian citizens.
Many of the internal migrations were linked to Covid-19 containment measures as many changed their official residence as movement between municipalities was banned in March and October.
The Statistics Office also recorded 1,725 people acquiring Slovenian citizenship last year as 43 lost it.
