A report by the Statistics Office shows that since 2005 most of the foreign immigrants sought employment. Their share in total immigration had always been above 60%, but dropped below 50% in 2011 (5,192 people).

The second largest group (4,304) of foreign nationals immigrated to Slovenia to join their families; most of them were relatives of foreigners employed here (mainly wives with children).

The number of immigrants who came to Slovenia to study doubled from 2010 to 437. The majority (62%) came from countries of former Yugoslavia, most of them (137) from Croatia.

Last year 12,024 people emigrated from Slovenia, of whom 4,679 Slovenian citizens and 7,345 foreign nationals. Every 11th emigrant was younger than 15: among Slovenian citizens almost every seventh, which the statisticians interpret as meaning that in some cases whole families emigrated from Slovenia.

Most of the Slovenian citizens (88%) who emigrated from Slovenia in 2011 de-registered their residence: one in five had elementary education, one in four had tertiary education and more than half had upper secondary education.

Nearly 12% of Slovenian citizens who emigrated from Slovenia left temporarily (for at least one year), the bulk of them (390 out of 557) were aged 25-64. Nearly half of these had tertiary education, and most moved to EU member states, mainly Belgium, the UK, Germany and Austria.

More than half of Slovenian citizens aged 25-64 who emigrated from Slovenia were employed before leaving the country, most of them in manufacturing (18.7%). Most of them were professionals (19.8%) and technicians and associate professionals (16.2%).

Most of the foreign nationals who left Slovenia in 2011 (6,037 people or 82.2%) returned to the countries of their first residence; nearly three quarters of them returned to one of the countries of former Yugoslavia, most of them to Bosnia and Herzegovina. Almost all these foreigners had upper secondary or lower education.