The proportion of people living in rural areas in Slovakia is high above the EU average, reads an analysis by the Unicredit Bank. When looking at the entire Union, only 27% of inhabitants live in the countryside, but in Slovakia as many as 44% of the population live outside urban areas. This figure is higher only in four member states: Lithuania, Slovenia, Luxemburg and Portugal. On the other hand, in Malta and the Netherlands, more than 90% of people live in towns and cities. As the analysis writes, together with geographical location, the high percentage of population in rural areas is one of the main factors causing regional disparities in the country. The risk of poverty in central and eastern European countries is twice-higher for the population in the countryside. However, among the original EU countries, the risk of poverty is higher in urban areas in all countries apart from Spain, Portugal, Greece and Finland.
The unemployment rate in Slovak rural areas is higher by 37% than in towns and cities and the difference is higher only in Lithuania and Bulgaria. The unemployment rate in Slovak urban areas is lower than the EU average by almost 5%. In rural areas, however, unemployment is higher than the EU average by 27%. As the analysis reads, unemployment in the countryside is higher in only 6 European member states. Most of them are in the south and they struggle with a lack of jobs not only in rural but also in urban areas. The analysis points at the unemployment rate's positive trend in the Slovak countryside in recent years. Since 2013, it has been decreasing significantly faster than in Slovak towns and cities.
