Námestie mieru 2, 080 01 Prešov, IČO: 37870475
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Etnography

At present more than 800,000 inhabitants are living in the Prešov region. This makes it, with nearly 15 percent of the whole country’s inhabitants, the most populous region in the country.

The population is distributed unevenly, however. Districts like Prešov and Poprad are among the largest in Slovakia, while others like Medzilaborce, Stropkov, Levoča and Svidník are amongst the smallest.

 

The Prešov region has the highest birth rate in Slovakia, and the third highest overall population growth. It has one of the youngest populations in Slovakia, the average age of its inhabitants being only 35.66 years. The number of people of productive and post-productive age is increasing gradually, however. With only 89 inhabitants per km², it is the second most sparsely poplulated region in Slovakia.

Because of its geographical location and conditions, the region has some of the country’s oldest types of settlement, ranging from tiny rural settlements to large towns and cities. There are 666 communities in the region, of which 23 are classed as towns. Nearly 400,000 people, or almost half of the region’s population, live in one of these towns.

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  • The capital of the region, Prešov, is the third largest town or city in Slovakia and has a population of 91,767.
  • The region’s oldest rural community is Žakovce (district of Kežmarok) and dates back to 1209, while the youngest, Lipníky, (district of Prešov) dates back only to 1990.
  • The highest situated community is Vysoké Tatry (High Tatras) at 1 010 m above sea level, the lowest, Dlhé Klčovo (district of Vranov nad Topľou), at just 117 m above sea level.
  • The northernmost village in the region is Ondavka (district of Bardejov), the southernmost, Sečovská Polianka (district of Vranov nad Topľou), the westernmost, Vysoké Tatry (district of Poprad), and the easternmost, Nová Sedlica (district of Snina), which is also the easternmost community in the whole of Slovakia.

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The region is ethnically heterogeneous. While more than nine tenths of the population (90.3 %)  are of Slovak nationality, there are

  • also Roma (4.5 %),
  • Ruthenians (2.6 %),
  • Ukrainians (0.8 %),
  • Czechs (0.5 %)
  • and Hungarians (0.1 %) living in the region,
  • with the remaining 1.2 % made up of other nationalities.

Of the country’s 139 wholly Slovak communities (with 100% Slovak inhabitants), 64 are in the Prešov region.

The number of Roma in the Prešov region is the highest in Slovakia, while Ruthenians and Ukrainians are two traditional minority groups in north-east Slovakia with an unresolved mutual relationship reflected in conflicting opinions about their provenance and the date of their arrival in the Carpathian area. The highest concentration of Ruthenians in Slovakia can be found here in the Prešov region; in the whole country there are approximately 700 communities with Ruthenian inhabitants, 22 of which have populations which are more than 50% Ruthenian.

Like the Ruthenians, Slovak Ukrainians are concentrated in north-east Slovakia. While there are below-average numbers of Czechs and Moravians living in the Prešov region, its northern part has one of the country’s largest Polish populations.

One specific ethnographic group living in the Slovak-Polish border country are the so-called Gorals (the Zamagurie part of Spiš). German settlement of the area was mostly concentrated in the historical Spiš region, from where it spread into larger historical centres; now the largest number of ethnic Germans in the Prešov region live in historically settled areas in the district of Stará Ľubovňa. Although there are very few Hungarians in the Prešov region, they still outnumber the small groups of Russians, Bulgarians, Jews and other nationalities which also live here.

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CONTACT

Offiice of the  Prešov Self-governing Region  
Námestie mieru 2
080 01 Prešov
Slovakia

Balentová Viera 
viera.balentova@vucpo.sk 
051/70 81 534 
Anglická verzia  Nemecká verzia 

Mattová Patrícia
patricia.mattova@vucpo.sk
051/70 81 535
Anglická verzia  Nemecká verzia 

Sendek Stanislav
stanislav.sendek@vucpo.sk 
051/70 81 517
 
Francúzska verzia

 

  

Publikované: 14.07.2009 / Aktualizované: 10.08.2010 To the topPrint