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Key Figures of the Convention Area Slovenia
Apart from the minor states of Liechtenstein and Monaco, Slovenia is the smallest Convention area in the Alps: A mere 4% of the total Convention area and only around 5% of its inhabitants are located in Slovenia (see table). With regard to Europe, Slovenia's total area accounts for less than 1% of the total area of the EU-15 states.
Due to political changes in the course of Slovenia's independence in 1992 and its accession to the EU in 2004, the country underwent a considerable economic and administrative development. For data evaluation purposes, particularly those changes applying to the administrative structure of the territory and to the data compilation methods are of relevance. While 62 municipalities were registered in the census of 1990, the figure increased to as many as 210 municipalities in March 2007. These changes represent a particular challenge for data harmonisation. Since Slovenia is the only part of the Alpine region that is populated by a Slavic nation, it differs fundamentally from the Germanic and Romanic Alpine regions.
  The Slovenian Convention area comprises an area of 6.800 km˛ and 60 municipalities
While the municipality (občin) is the smallest administrative unit in the other member states of the Alpine Convention, it is the local community (naselij) in Slovenia. The Convention area was demarcated on the same level, i.e. in some cases only a certain community of the entire municipality was made a part of the Alpine Convention area. However, since no statistical data are available for local communities, the municipalities similarly form the statistical basis in Slovenia. For this reason, data that do not belong to the Alpine Convention were collected in some municipalities.
The natural conditions in Slovenia can only be considered extremely difficult. The Slovenian Alps are a part of the Southern Limestone Alps in the northeast with three high-Alpine mountain ranges, the Julian Alps, the Karavanke and the Kamnik Alps. Since more than 70% of the country is considered geographically disadvantaged, the conditions in Slovenia are even worse than those in Austria and Switzerland. The Slovenian Alps spread over 60% of Slovenia's total area, making it one of the most forested regions in Europe.
The total Alpine versus the Slovenian Convention area, 2000
|
|
Total Convention area
1 |
Slovenian Convention area
2 |
2 / 1 (%) |
|
Area (km˛) |
190,890 |
6,766 |
3.5 |
|
Municipalities |
5,954 |
60 |
1 |
|
Inhabitants |
13,630,577 |
642,633 |
4.7 | Sources
While Slovenia plays only a relatively minor role with regard to the total Convention area, the Slovenian Convention area accounts for around one third of the total Slovenian area and population. For this reason, the developments in the Convention area play an important role for the country as a whole.
Slovenia versus the Slovenian Convention area, 2000
|
|
Slovenia
1 |
Slovenian Convention area
2 |
2 / 1 (%) |
|
Area (km˛) |
20,273 |
6,766 |
33.4 |
|
Municipalities |
193 |
60 |
31.1 |
|
Inhabitants |
1,987,755 |
642,633 |
32.3 | Sources
|
