Podravska, the second most populated statistical region, had 16% of Slovenia’s population in 2023. In terms of area, with 2,170 square kilometres it is the fifth largest region. Its population density was 152 inhabitants per square kilometre.
The mean age of the population in 2023 was 44.8 years. As all other regions, this region also recorded a natural decrease (–3.8 per 1,000 population). However, due to the positive net migration between statistical regions and from abroad, the population slightly increased over the previous year. Net migration was 8.5 per 1,000 population. The share of people aged 0–14 was the second lowest (13.7%); it was lower only in Pomurska (12.9%). The mean age of women at childbirth was 30.9 years, slightly below the national average of 31.1 years. The share of third-born or higher-order children was among the lowest (14.9%). In the region, 63.6% of children were born to unmarried mothers. Only two regions had higher shares: Pomurska and Koroška. This region stood out in terms of the lowest share of married population aged 15 and older, at about 40%. It also had the second highest share of divorced residents with the same share (7.7%) as in Osrednjeslovenska. The share of the population (25–64 years) with basic education or less was the second lowest (10.6%), and was lower only in Osrednjeslovenska (9.9%). At 59.3%, the region had the second highest share of people with upper secondary education and 30.1% of the population had tertiary education, which was 3.2 percentage points below the national average.
In 2023, the employment rate was the second lowest in Slovenia (64.5%). At 4.3%, the LFS unemployment rate was the third highest at the regional level. A relatively small share of persons in employment (18.4%) worked outside the region of residence, since only Osrednjeslovenska (10.4%) and Goriška (17.6%) had lower values. Average monthly net earnings of persons employed in the region amounted to EUR 1,345 and were 7% lower than the national average.
In 2023, the Podravska region generated 12.6% of Slovenias gross value added, ranking second behind Osrednjeslovenska, which contributed the largest share (39.3%). The gross domestic product per capita in Podravska amounted to EUR 24,527, which was 19% below the national average. The second lowest disposable income per capita was recorded in the region, EUR 16,109 or about 3% below the national average. The region had around 30,700 enterprises with on average 4.5 persons employed.
Residents of the Podravska region rated their overall life satisfaction at 7.7 (on a scale from 0 to 10), matching the national average. The same rating was also given by residents of Goriška and Primorsko-notranjska. The at-risk-of-poverty rate was among the highest; 16.4% of people lived below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold. In addition, the region recorded the highest rate of very low work intensity; 5.3% of people aged 0–64 lived in households where adult members (aged 18–64) worked less than 20% of their potential working time in a year. On the other hand, the share of households that felt their dwelling was too dark or did not receive enough natural light was the lowest in this region and the Koroška region, at just 3%. There were 569 passenger cars per 1,000 population, which was 10 per 1,000 population fewer than the national average, and the cars were on average 11.1 years old, which was the same as the national average.