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YouthWiki

EACEA National Policies Platform
Slovenia

Slovenia

Overview

Last update: 20 December 2023

Young People in Slovenia

According to the Act on Public Interest in the Youth Sector “youth” are defined as young people and young adults of both genders aged between 15 and a completed 29 years. The share of young people (aged 15–29) in Slovenia is declining. In Slovenia, there was 320,000 young people aged 15-29 in 2017. At the beginning of 2016 they accounted for 16% of the population, ten years ago it was over 20%. The at-risk-of-poverty rate among young people in 2016 was 14.6% and was higher than that among the general population. The unemployment rate among young people was also higher than the average: at the beginning of 2017 it was amounted to 13.2%, while the total unemployment rate was 7.8%. Nevertheless, the youngest among all age groups are most satisfied with their lives, since - on a scale of 0 to 10 - they rated their lives in 2016 with an average score of 7.8, which was 0.7 points more than the average.

The situation of the young in Slovenia is defined primarily by the combination of considerable family support and prolonged inclusion in the (relatively socially-oriented and friendly) education system on the one hand, and the extremely uncertain labour market conditions on the other. Statistics indicate that young people’s employment situation is improving (youth unemployment has been gradually declining since), but young people remain one of the most vulnerable groups on the labour market. Compared to 2011, in 2016 the youth employment rate in Slovenia decreased in total by 2.5 percentage points. In 2016 the youth employment rate in Slovenia stood at 45.3% and in the EU at 48.3%. 25.1% of young employees (15–24 years) were in a permanent employment relationship, 25.5% were in a temporary employment relationship and 49.4% had other temporary employment types.

In 2015 the share of the young living in the parental household in Slovenia was 80.4% and was higher than that in the EU (65.9%). Young people move away from their parental household at an average of 28.2-year-old, which is slightly more than two years later than young peers throughout the EU.

Young people in Slovenia feel they have very little political influence, and in comparison with the EU average tend to be much less interested or involved in politics. 

Compared to other EU countries, there is a growing trend of increasing obesity in Slovenia.

Young people (16-24 year-old) like to go to the cinema. In 2015, 75% of young people visited at least one cinema show, 49% attended at least one concert, 28% theatre, and 48% of young people watched a sports event or match. 69% of young people actively participated in online social networks on a daily basis (in 2015). Among forms of participation, young people in Slovenia most commonly participate in voluntary activities (35.7%), which represent a central mechanism of social inclusion of young people. Slovenian youth are most frequently members of organisations in the fields of sports, recreation and culture, while their membership in political parties is considerably lower.

 



 

Youth Policy in Slovenia

Youth policy in Slovenia is defined in the Act on Public Interest in the Youth Sector, as a “harmonised set of measures of various sectoral public policies with the purpose of promoting and facilitating the integration of youth in the economic, cultural and political life of the community and appropriate support mechanisms for developing youth work and operation of youth organisations, which is carried out in cooperation with autonomous and democratic representatives of youth organisations and professional and other organisations”.

The measures to implement youth policy are taken by the state or local communities. In principle, youth policy is part of other sectoral policies (e.g. education, health, employment) and therefore falls within the competence of different Ministries, e.g. the Ministry of Education, Science and Sport, the Ministry of Labour, Family, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Culture …). Consequently, the implementation of youth policy is not linked to a single institution. The Act on Public Interest in the Youth Sector identifies the Office of the Republic of Slovenia for Youth as the public authority responsible for the youth field. The Office for Youth mainly focuses on promoting youth work, coordinating measures within youth policy and ensuring adequate social dialogue with young people. Youth Office has been co-funding youth work programmes since its beginnings.

 

Several pieces of legislation regulate the youth field. The Act on Public Interest in the Youth Sector may be considered as the most comprehensive and binding official document that addresses the needs and/or rights of young people and stipulates how youth issues should be addressed. The Act entered into force in 2010.

The Resolution on the National Youth Programme 2013–2022 (Resolucija o Nacionalnem programu za mladino 2013–2022) was adopted in 2013 for the period 2013–2022. It serves as an overarching strategic public document or action plan that integrates the major directions to be followed in policy making on youth matters at the national level. Measures of the National programme for youth are covering the following fields: education, employment and entrepreneurship, housing, health and wellbeing, the social position of youth, the development of the youth sector, culture and creativity, heritage, media.



 

Ratio of young people in the total population on 1st January

Ratio of men and women in the youth population

Statistic references

References:

Ratio (%) of young people in the total population (2017): Eurostat, yth_demo_020 [data extracted on 4/09/2018].

Absolute number of young people on 1 January for the age group 15-29 (2017): Eurostat, yth_demo_010 [data extracted on 4/09/2018].

Ratio (%) of men and women in the youth population (2017): Eurostat, yth_demo_020 [data extracted on 4/09/2018].

Young immigrants from non-EU countries (2016): Eurostat, yth_demo_070 [data extracted on 4/09/2018].