Regions of Slovakia


Since 1949, Slovakia has been divided into a number of kraje. Their number, borders and functions have been changed several times. There are currently eight regions of Slovakia and they correspond to the EU's NUTS 3 level of local administrative units. Each kraj consists of okresy. There are currently 79 districts.

List

After a period without kraje and without any equivalent, the kraje were reintroduced in 1996. As for administrative division, Slovakia has been subdivided into 8 kraje since 24 July 1996:
FlagArmsRegionCapitalPopulation Area DensityNUTS level 3
BratislavaBratislava659,5982,052.6321,34SK010
TrnavaTrnava563,5914,172.2135,08SK021
TrenčínTrenčín585,8824,501.9130,14SK022
NitraNitra676,6726,343.4106,67SK023
ŽilinaŽilina691,3686,808.4101,54SK031
Banská BystricaBanská Bystrica647,8759,454.868,52SK032
PrešovPrešov825,0228,974.591,92SK041
KošiceKošice800,4146,751.9118,32SK042

Since 2002, Slovakia is divided into 8 samosprávne kraje, which are called by the Constitution vyššie územné celky, abbr. VÚC. The territory and borders of the self-governing regions are identical with the territory and borders of the kraje. Therefore, the word "kraj" can be replaced by "VÚC" or "samosprávny kraj" in each case in the above list. The main difference is that organs of samosprávne kraje are self-governing, with an elected chairperson and
assembly, while the organs of kraje are appointed by the government.

Name

The term "Region" should not be confused with:

Prior to 1949

Historically, Slovakia was not divided into kraje, but into counties. This was the case when present-day Slovakia was part of:
In 1928–1939 Slovakia as a whole formed the administrative unit "Slovak land" within Czechoslovakia.

Kraje 24 December 1948/1 January 1949 – 30 June 1960

Each kraj was named after its principal city.

Kraje July 1, 1960 – December 19, 1990

Note: The kraje were abolished from July 1, 1969 to December 28, 1970 and reintroduced then.