Ethnicity
Ethnic Slovaks comprise nearly 86 percent of the Slovak Republic's total population of approximately 5.4 million. More than 500,000 ethnic Hungarians reside in the Slovak Republic, primarily in the south and east. At nearly 11 percent of the total population, they are the largest ethnic minority. Other resident ethnic groups include Czechs, Germans, Poles, Roma, Moravians, Ruthenians, Silesians and Ukrainians.
Language
While Slovak is the official language, Hungarian is widely spoken in the south.
Religion
In terms of religious affiliation, the majority of Slovaks are Roman Catholic (over 60 percent). Protestants are the second-largest religious group (approximately eight percent). Orthodox Christians, Jews, and others are also resident.
Health and Welfare
According to recent estimates, Slovaks have an average life expectancy at birth of 74 years, (70 years for males, 78 years for females). The infant mortality rate is 7.12 deaths per 1,000 live births. The literacy rate is 99.7 percent. About 3.6 percent of GDP is spent in the country on educational expenditures. About 8.5 percent of GDP is spent on health expenditures. Access to sanitation, water, and health care is generally considered to be excellent.
Human Development
One notable measure used to determine a country's quality of life is the Human Development Index (HDI), which has been compiled annually since 1990 by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The HDI is a composite of several indicators, which measure a country's achievements in three main arenas of human development: longevity, knowledge and education, as well as economic standard of living. In a ranking of 169 countries, the HDI places Slovakia in the very high human development category, at 31st place.
Note: Although the concept of human development is complicated and cannot be properly captured by values and indices, the HDI, which is calculated and updated annually, offers a wide-ranging assessment of human development in certain countries, not based solely upon traditional economic and financial indicators.