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Demographic data

Exact data on the number of the Roma and social-economic data are not available in the Slovak Republic; only th eestimates of monitoring reports are available. Sociological research focused on monitoring the Roma situation has been started and performed by research institutions, academic institutions, European institutions, non-governmental organizations and international organizations. The monitoring reports of European institutions offered partial data on the specific areas of the life of the Roma population. 

At the beginning of the 21st century, a significant shift occurred in the data collection of socio-graphic territory mapping of Roma villages. The mapping of Roma communities in Slovakia (Atlas of Roma communities, 2004) is based on the assumption that the Roma communities live in certain spatial units, enclaves or villages at the periphery or in segregated villages and therefore it is possible to monitor and map them.

The Roma population has its own characteristics, which differ significantly from the majority of the population. Based on the level of integration of the Roma we can divide them into three groups: fully integrated (about 20%; customs taken from the majority of the population), partially integrated (about 40 - 50% lives in isolation and interaction between the Roma and non-Roma population is more intense) and non-integrated (about 20 - 30% lives a different way of life as opposed to the non-Roma population). Most of the problems and specifics of the citizens are connected to the non-integrated or partially integrated Roma. The Roma are a specific and different group based on their social-cultural level, history, anthropologic features, lifestyle, language, education, their own standards and laws, coherence and internal hierarchy (Hegyi, 2005).

Based on the recent estimates of the number of Roma living in Slovakia, as per the experts in the field of demographics but also as per the sociological mapping, the number is 400,000 - 480,000 (6 - 8% of citizens) and the Slovak Republic (SR) belongs together with Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary among the states with the most numerous Roma community in Europe (Valentovič 2007). Spatial distribution of the Roma in Slovakia is exceptionally uneven. In general it can be said that there is a higher representation in eastern and southern Slovakia and lower representation in the northwestern and western Slovakia. Eastern Slovakia concentrates more than 60% of the Roma ethnic living in Slovakia. The highest portions of spatial distribution of the Roma have the Košice (31% of the total number of Slovak Roma) and Prešov regions (29,3%). They are followed by the Banská Bystrica region with 19,6%.  At the other end of the spectrum there are the Trenčín region (1,28%), Žilina region (1,45%) and Bratislava region (1,95%) (Statistical office of the Slovak Republic, 2013).

As per the UNDP survey performed in 2010, depending on the current economic state of the minority groups of Roma, the biggest part of this population consists of the Roma in the productive age. This group represents 44% of the total Roma population where 19% are the children of pre-school age and 25% young adults (aged up to 25 years). The rate of the population in the post-productive age was very low, at the level of 5%.

Source: http://put.edidomus.it/domus/binaries/imagedata/big_250193_1300_IMAGE2_big.jpg

 

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