Slovenia registered 16,213 more residents immigrated to the country than emigrated from it in 2019, the highest net migration since 2008, the Statistics Office figures showed on Friday.
In 2019, 31,319 people immigrated to Slovenia, 10 percent higher than in 2018, while 15,106 emigrated from the country, up by 12 percent from the previous year.
However, the net migration of Slovenian citizens was negative for the 20th year running, with 2,839 more people leaving the country.
Slovenia allows its citizens to hold foreign citizenship in addition to their Slovenian citizenship.
The most common countries of previous residence for immigrants with Slovenian citizenship in 2019 were Germany and Austria (22 percent and 17 percent respectively), followed by Croatia, the United Kingdom, Italy and Switzerland.
Half of all foreign immigrants in 2019 came from Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH).
In 2019, 25 percent of emigrants with Slovenian citizenship left for Austria; some other common countries of next residence were Germany, Switzerland and Croatia. Among foreign emigrants, the most common country of next residence was BiH (28 percent), followed by Serbia (14 percent), Germany (11 percent) and Croatia (9 percent).
As many as 1,911 foreigners were granted Slovenian citizenship in 2019, whereas 42 persons gave up their Slovenian citizenship.
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