Regions of Slovakia

Slovakia is a country in Europe that has been divided into special areas called regions since 1949, except for a short time between 1990 and 1996. These regions help organize the country's government and services. Today, Slovakia has eight main regions, and each one is made up of smaller parts called districts. There are 79 districts in total across all the regions. These regions match a system used by the EU for keeping track of areas across Europe, known as NUTS level 3. Each region contains many towns and villages, called municipalities, which are the smallest parts of this system.

List

After a time without these areas (1990–1996), they were brought back in 1996. Since December 31, 2025, Slovakia has been divided into 8 regions called kraje.

Since 2002, Slovakia is also split into 8 self-governing regions. These are called Higher Territorial Units. Their areas and borders are the same as the kraje. The main difference is that self-governing regions have leaders chosen by the people, while the kraje have leaders chosen by the government.

Name

The word "Region" in Slovakia, called kraj in Slovak, is special. It is not the same as other ways people talk about areas, like in tourism or traditions. There are also bigger groups of these regions used for counting and studying by groups like Eurostat. These bigger groups are:

• Bratislava region (statistical) SK 01 – just the city of Bratislava
• Západné Slovensko SK 02 – includes Trnava, Trenčín and Nitra
• Stredné Slovensko SK 03 – includes Žilina and Banská Bystrica
• Východné Slovensko SK 04 – includes Prešov and Košice

History

Prior to 1949

Historically, Slovakia was divided into counties instead of regions. This was true when Slovakia was part of several different areas, like Great Moravia, the Kingdom of Hungary, Czechoslovakia, and the WWII Slovak Republic.

24 December 1948/1 January 1949 – 30 June 1960

During this time, Slovakia had six regions. Each region was named after its main city. These were:

• Bratislavský kraj (Bratislava Region)
• Banskobystrický kraj (Banská Bystrica Region)
• Košický kraj (Košice Region)
• Nitriansky kraj (Nitra Region)
• Prešovský kraj (Prešov Region)
• Žilinský kraj (Žilina Region)

1 July 1960 – 19 December 1990

Later, Slovakia was divided into three larger regions, with Bratislava becoming its own special area. There was a short break when these regions were not used, but they came back again later.

Traditional regions

Slovakia has other areas that are not based on old county lines.