35. Slovenia
This country profile presents entrepreneurship and self-employment indicators for women, youth, seniors, immigrants and people with disabilities, benchmarking rates in Slovenia against the European Union average. It also highlights recent policy actions and policy issues related to inclusive entrepreneurship.
The overall conditions for entrepreneurship are similar to those in most European Union (EU) Member States. The number of people reporting that they are working on a start-up or managing a new business (i.e. TEA rate) was about equal to the EU average. Young people (18-30 years old) were the most likely to be working on new businesses (10%) and seniors (50-64 years old) were the least likely (3%). Both of these shares are in-line with the EU average. However, the share of new entrepreneurs reporting that they started their business because they could not find a job was above the EU average over this period, notably among women (33% vs. 22%). If everyone was as likely as core age men (30-49 years old) to be starting and managing new businesses, there would an additional 47 000 early-stage entrepreneurs. Nearly 80% of these “missing” entrepreneurs would be women and the majority would be over 50 years old.
The self-employment rate remained stable at about 12% over the previous decade, which was also in-line with the EU average (13% in 2022). The rates for most population groups were slightly below the EU average rates in 2022: women (7% vs. 9%), youth (20-29 years old) (5% vs. 7%), seniors (20-29 years old) (14% vs. 17%) and immigrants (9% vs. 11%). The share of the self-employed who employ others was also below the EU average (27% vs. 32%).
Many recent developments have focused on supporting youth entrepreneurship. Beginning in 2020, SPIRIT Slovenia began a campaign to promote entrepreneurship and innovation among youth through the Youth Programme. Activities include training, entrepreneurship mentoring, initiatives to promote creativity and innovation through conferences, information days and events such as “Start-up Weekend”. In 2022, the programme also supported entrepreneurship activities in 104 schools.
In recent years, more attention has also been paid to senior entrepreneurship through international projects and initiatives by specialised organisations. For example, the first Slovenian Festival of Entrepreneurship was organised in 2021 by the Chamber of Crafts of Domžale, in co-operation with the Municipality of Domžale. In 2022, the five-day festival focused on senior entrepreneurship with the aim to build entrepreneurship competencies and establish inter-generational co-operation between youth and senior entrepreneurs.
Note: In Panel a, the data for the EU median for SME lending excludes the following countries: Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, Malta and Romania. The EU median for the entrepreneurship skills indicator excludes: Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Malta. In Panels b-d, the data for the EU average refers to a population-weighted average and excludes Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia and Malta. Please see Chapter 10 for detailed notes on the figures.
Source: (Eurostat, 2023; GEM, 2023; OECD, 2023). Please see Chapter 10 for full citations.