PODRAVSKA - Population
Population in slight decline
With 320 100 inhabitants (16.1% of the national population) in 2002, Podravska is the second largest Slovenian region in terms of population. In the same year, the region ranked third by population density, with 147.5 people per km2, which is well above the national average of 98.4 people per km2. Population density is highest in the municipalities of Maribor, Miklavz na Dravskem polju and Ptuj, and in the plains, where it exceeds 300 people per km2, while in hilly parts it ranges between 60 and 100 people per km2.
Podravska's population decreased by 2.4% in the period between 1990 and 2002 (0.1% in Slovenia as a whole). As the region's economic problems escalated in the mid-1990s, this decline became more rapid. The main cause of the declining population is the low birth rate (8.3 births per 1000 population in 2002), which was lower only in three regions of west Slovenia and Zasavska. Between 1990 and 2002 the number of deaths is 15.3% higher than the number of births. Population decline cannot be attributed to migratory factors, since the migration balance in the region in the above mentioned period had been highly positive.
The age structure of the population is very close to the national average, the only exception being the percentage of people under the age of 25 which is slightly below the national average. With 4.2 deaths per births in 2002, the infant mortality in the region is close to the national average.
According to the 2002 census, the percentage of people of foreign nationality in the population was 3.4%. These are mostly immigrants from other parts of former Yugoslavia, Croats and Serbs and their descendants, who live almost exclusively in the larger towns.
Before World War II, an economically powerful German minority (approximately 10 000 people) lived mainly in Maribor, Ptuj and some other Slovenian towns. However, most of them had emigrated by the end of the war. The remaining Germans, who are now scattered all over Slovenia (in Maribor they number 59), continue to strive to gain ethnic minority status.
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