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Slovakia census 2001

The first results of the Slovakia census performed in May 2001 are available at

http://www.statistics.sk/webdata/slov/scitanie/tab/tab.htm

There are documents to download, unfortunately only in Slovak. The english translation of the document titles you may find clicking here.

The basic ethnic and religious data are presented below
 

Ethnic groups in thousands compared with 1991 census data

Description
Census 2001
Census 1991
Change
Change in %
Total population
5,379
5,274
+ 105
+ 2 %
Ethnic Slovaks
4,615
4,519
+ 96
+ 2 %
Ethnic Hungarians
520
567
- 47
- 8 %
Ethnic Romas (Gypsies)
90
76
+ 14
+18 %
Ethnic Czechs
45
53
- 8
- 15 %
Ethnic Rusyns
24
17
+ 7
+ 41 %
Ethnic Ukrainians
11
13
- 2
- 15 %

 

Religious communities in thousands compared with 1991 census data

Description
Census 2001
Census 1991
Change
Change in %
Roman Catholics
3,708
3,187
+ 521
+ 16 %
Lutherans
372
326
+ 46
+ 14 %
Greek Catholics
220
179
+ 41
+ 22 %
Calvinists
109
83
+ 26
+ 31 %
Orthodox
50
34
+ 16
+ 47 %
Jehovah witness
20
10
+ 10
+ 100 %
Atheists
697
515
+ 182
+ 35 %
Unspecified (people who left the field blank)
160
917
- 757
- 82 %

 

The opinions

Peter Nagy

There are two surprises:

  1. The number of the religious people increased by 680 thousands! (in 1991 those people did not fill the field "faith" - they were still afraid to admit their faith). Now 84% of Slovakia population is religious - it is just opposite development as in the Czech republic.
  2. The number of ethnic Hungarians decreased by 47 thousands in 10 years. It is clear answer to Mr. Slota and Ms. Malikova, who are claiming that the Hungarian minority in Slovakia is assimilating the Slovaks in South Slovakia. The opposite is true, the Hungarians assimilate very quickly, 9% in ten years!
Rj presented in his message in Delphi Forum the following

What I find interesting is that the number of citizens claiming Rusyn ancestry is up 42% from 1991. While those claiming to be Ukrainian is down 15%. It appears that the "reawakening of the Rusyn Spirit" is occurring in Slovakia. It saddens me that I have relatives in the U.S. who, when I show them the facts, still deny their Rusyn heritage - claiming to be Slovak

The press digest

SME, 31 October 2001, interview with Mr. Michal Vasecka
In Slovakia there live according the estimates about 380 thousands of Romas. Why they did not show their ethnicity in the census?
It is a complicated problem. In 1991 there were still valid the old identity card, where the ethnicity was disclosed. Now, the ethnicity is not indicated in the ID card, however the Roma identity is in crisis, many Romas do not consider themselves as Roma, even if they have clear anthropology signs.
SME, 2 November 2001, interview with Mr. Miklos Duray
The reason for the decrease of Hungarian ethnic group consists in the emigration of the young Hungarians to Czech Republic, Hungary and Austria
SME, 3 November 2001, Article: "Slovenská zbožnosť biskupov prekvapila"
Slovak Republic is much more religious as the Czech Republic. In Czech Republic 58% of the population is atheistic. From neighboring countries only Poland has higher religiosity ratio - there 95 % of population is Catholic.
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