Buy data    Donate

Updates: 

I have added data from the 2011 census, and replaced the 1970 figures under Population history, which were rounded, with exact numbers from source [1].

New proposed NUTS codes for Slovakia were issued on 2004-09-15. I have updated the table to show them.

During the Iron Curtain period, Czechoslovakia comprised two Socialist Republics, the Czech S. R. and the Slovak S. R. Each republic was divided into several kraje (regions) and one independent city. The communist government of Czechoslovakia resigned on November 24, 1989. On January 1, 1993, the Czech and Slovak Republics separated amicably. The old administrative divisions apparently persisted for a while, but by 1996, Slovakia adopted a new set of regions.

International standard ISO 3166-2 was published on December 15, 1998. It superseded ISO/DIS 3166-2 (draft international standard). For Slovakia, the draft standard showed three regions, the ones which had prevailed under communism. It failed to list the one independent city, Bratislava. The final standard showed the eight regions adopted in ~1996. The new regions and their codes are shown in this table.

Country overview: 

Short name	SLOVAKIA
ISO code	SK
FIPS code	LO
Language	Slovak (sk)
Time zone	+1~
Capital	Bratislava

 

At the beginning of the 20th century, Slovakia was a region in the north of Hungary, which was one of two kingdoms linked together as the Austro-Hungarian Empire. At the end of World War I, shortly before the Armistice, the Slovaks organized a new government in northern Hungary. They merged with the Czechs to form Czechoslovakia on 1918-11-14. The Treaty of Saint-Germain (1919-09-10) confirmed the new country. During World War II, Slovakia was invaded and became a German protectorate. At the end of the war, Czechoslovakia was restored almost to its pre-war borders. The Soviet Union annexed Transcarpathian Ukraine, also known as Ruthenia, at the eastern end. By its constitution of 1948-06-09, Czechoslovakia became a "people's democratic republic." Its primary divisions were the Czech and the Slovak Socialist Republic. On 1993-01-01, the two republics became separate countries. What had been the second-level subdivisions of Czechoslovakia were now first-level subdivisions of the Czech Republic and of Slovakia.

Other names of country: 

1. Danish: Slovakiet, Den Slovakiske Republik, Slovakiet
2. Dutch: Slowakije, Slowaakse Republiek (formal)
3. English: Slovak Republic (formal)
4. Finnish: Slovakia
5. French: Slovaquie f, République f Slovaque (formal)
6. German: Slowakei f, Slowakische Republik f (formal)
7. Icelandic: Slóvakía
8. Italian: Slovacchia f, Repubblica f Slovacca (formal)
9. Norwegian: Den slovakiske republikk (formal) (Bokmål), Den slovakiske republikken (formal) (Nynorsk), Slovakia
10. Portuguese: Eslováquia, República f Eslovaca (formal)
11. Slovak: Slovensko, Slovenská Republika (formal)
12. Russian: Словакия, Словацкая Республика (formal)
13. Spanish: Eslovaquia, República f Eslovaca (formal)
14. Swedish: Slovakien
15. Turkish: Slovakya Cumhuriyeti (formal)

Origin of name: 

from ethnic name Slovak, a variant of Slav

Primary subdivisions: 

Slovakia is divided into eight kraje (regions).

Region	HASC	FIPS	NUTS	RC	Pop-2011	Pop-2001	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Slovak Name	German	Former
Banska Bystrica	SK.BC	LO01	SK032	6	660,563	662,121	9,455	3,651	Banskobystrický	Neusohl	Central, East
Bratislava	SK.BL	LO02	SK010	1	602,436	599,015	2,052	792	Bratislavský	Preßburg	Bratislava, West
Kosice	SK.KI	LO03	SK042	8	791,723	766,012	6,752	2,607	Košický	Kaschau	East
Nitra	SK.NI	LO04	SK023	4	689,867	713,422	6,344	2,449	Nitriansky	Neutra	West
Presov	SK.PV	LO05	SK041	7	814,527	789,968	8,981	3,468	Prešovský	Preschau	East
Trencin	SK.TC	LO06	SK022	3	594,328	605,582	4,502	1,738	Trenčiansky	Trentschin	West, Central
Trnava	SK.TA	LO07	SK021	2	554,741	551,003	4,147	1,601	Trnavský	Tyrnau	West
Zilina	SK.ZI	LO08	SK031	5	688,851	692,332	6,801	2,626	Žilinský	Sillein	Central
8 regions					5,397,036	5,379,455	49,034	18,933
Name: English name of region or province. Always the same as the name of the largest city in the region. HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. If periods are replaced by hyphens, these are the same as the region codes from ISO standard 3166-2. According to the ISO document, the two-letter codes are prescribed by Slovak law No. 221/1996. FIPS: Codes from FIPS PUB 10-4, a U.S. government standard. NUTS: Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics. RC: One-digit region code for statistics. Pop-2011: 2011-05-20 census. Pop-2001: 2001-05-25 census. Slovak Name: Name of region, as listed in ISO 3166-2. Uses the adjective form of the name. German: Old German name of the region's main city, given as an aid for historical research. Former: Former region(s) (~1970 to ~1996) that contained territory of the modern region.

Postal codes: 

Slovakia uses five-digit postal codes with a space between the third and fourth digits. Slovak addresses can be identified by prefixing the postal codes with "SK-".

Further subdivisions:

See the Districts of Slovakia page.

Bratislava was subdivided into obvody until 1996. The regions are subdivided into 79 okresy.

The NUTS level-2 nomenclature, derived by taking the first four characters of the NUTS codes in the table above, defines an unofficial set of districts (called "oblasti" in Slovak). These are their names: Bratislavský kraj (SK01), Západné Slovensko (SK02), Stredné Slovensko (SK03), and Východné Slovensko (SK04). These names are essentially the same as those used for the four divisions of the Slovak Socialist Republic in the 1970s and 1980s, but the areas they cover are different.

Territorial extent: 

The UN LOCODE page  for Slovakia lists locations in the country, some of them with their latitudes and longitudes, some with their ISO 3166-2 codes for their subdivisions. This information can be put together to approximate the territorial extent of subdivisions.

Origins of names: 

Bratislava: Slovak Brecislava, name of an old Slav colony

Change history: 

1. 1918: Slovakia formed. It consisted of two provinces: Slovakia proper and Carpathian Ruthenia. Slovakia proper consisted of the former Hungarian counties of Árva, Bars, Lipto, Nyitra, Pozsony, Saros, Szepes, Trencsen, Turocz, Zólyom, and parts of Abauj-Torna, Gömör, Györ, Hont, Komárom, Mozsony, Nógrád, Ung, and Zemplen. Carpathian Ruthenia consisted of Bereg, Máramaros, Ugocsa, and the rest of Ung. For more details about the Hungarian counties, see Hungary listing.
2. 1918-11-14: Slovakia merged with a Czech government in formation, creating Czechoslovakia.
3. 1920: Poland took parts of Orava (374 km.²) and Spis (215 km.²) regions from Slovakia.
4. 1945-06-29: Soviet Union acquired Carpathian Ruthenia from Czechoslovakia by treaty.
5. 1949-01-01: The země (provinces) of Slovakia were replaced by six regions. This table shows populations as of 1957-01-01. The capitals have the same names as their regions. The German names of the capitals, used during the occupation, are also shown.

Region	Population	Area(km.²)	German name
Bratislava	970,285	7,519	Preßburg
Banská Bystrica	587,215	9,266	Neusohl
Žilina	525,072	8,269	Sillein
Košice	541,359	7,440	Kaschau
Prešov	448,319	8,495	Preschau
Nitra	747,787	7,968	Neutra
6 regions	3,820,037	48,957
Population: 1957-01-01 estimate

1. 1960: Banská Bystrica and Žilina merged to form Central Slovakia; Košice and Prešov merged to form East Slovakia; Bratislava and Nitra merged to form West Slovakia.
2. ~1970: Bratislava hlavné mesto (city) split from West Slovakia. As a result, these were the divisions of the Slovak Socialist Republic, a division of Czechoslovakia:

Region	HASC	ISO	Population	Area(km.²)	Area(mi.²)	Capital
Bratislava	SK.BR		444,482	368	142	Bratislava
Central Slovakia	SK.CS	SSS	1,622,380	17,982	6,943	Banská Bystrica
East Slovakia	SK.ES	SVS	1,512,506	16,193	6,252	Košice
West Slovakia	SK.WS	SZS	1,730,786	14,492	5,595	Bratislava
4 divisions			5,310,154	49,035	18,932
Region: except for Bratislava, which was a hlavné mesto (city). HASC: Hierarchical administrative subdivision codes. ISO: Codes from ISO 3166-2. Population: 1990-12-31 estimate

1. 1993-01-01: Czechoslovakia split into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Slovakia consisted of the four divisions listed above. They had all been secondary divisions of Czechoslovakia, using the same boundaries. The four divisions fell into disuse.
2. 1996-07-24: Slovakia reorganized from three regions and a city into eight regions.
3. 2004-05-01: Slovakia joined the European Union.

Other names of subdivisions: 

1. Bratislava: Pozsony (Hungarian); Preßburg (German)
2. Central Slovakia: Eslováquia Central (Portuguese); Slovacchia Centrale (Italian); Stredné Slovensko (Slovak); Středoslovenský (Czech)
3. East Slovakia: Eslováquia Oriental (Portuguese); Slovacchia Orientale (Italian); Východné Slovensko (Slovak); Východoslovenský (Czech)
4. West Slovakia: Eslováquia Ocidental (Portuguese); Slovacchia Occidentale (Italian); Západné Slovensko (Slovak); Západoslovenský (Czech)

Population history:

Region	1900	1921	1930	1950	1961	1970-12-01	1982	1990
Bratislava							394,644	444,482
Central Slovakia	885,000	949,000	1,030,000	1,053,000	1,301,000	1,401,655	1,549,112	1,622,380
East Slovakia	779,000	797,000	889,000	899,000	1,113,000	1,250,709	1,428,558	1,512,506
West Slovakia	1,119,000	1,248,000	1,405,000	1,490,000	1,761,000	1,884,926	1,701,547	1,730,786
Totals	2,783,000	2,994,000	3,324,000	3,442,000	4,175,000	4,537,290	5,073,861	5,310,154

 

(Populations for 1900-1950 correspond to regional boundaries as of 1961.)

Sources: 

1. [1] 1979 Demographic Yearbook , 31st Ed. Statistical Office, United Nations, New York, 1980 (retrieved 2011-12-28).
2. [2] Table 2: Resident Population by sex, by regions, 2001, 2011 Census . Statistical Office of the Slovak Republic (retrieved 2014-01-15).