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Best places to live in Slovenia with every factor weighted equally
The ranking at the top of this page starts with all 13 factors at the same weight. On that footing, these 10 of the 38 places score highest; the number beside each is its match score out of 100. Treat the list as a starting point, not a verdict: raise the factors you care about and the order changes. Select a place to open its full breakdown.
- 182Strongest on restaurants and bars (100), walkability (100) and cultural scene (99). Weakest on access to nature (46). Restaurants and bars: the average resident has 36 restaurants, cafes and bars within 1 km.
- 281Strongest on healthcare (100), long-distance trains (100) and restaurants and bars (100). Weakest on housing cost (0). Healthcare: 2 hospital sites within 15 km.
- 366Strongest on long-distance trains (98), international community (95) and walkability (82). Weakest on public transit (20). Long-distance trains: 19 long-distance departures a day (main station Celje). Ljubljana 1 h 10 min, Maribor 43 min, Kranj 2 h 02 min, Koper 2 h 49 min.
- 466Strongest on airport access (100), long-distance trains (92) and safety (81). Weakest on public transit (13). Airport access: 27 min by public transport to Ljubljana airport.
- 565Strongest on housing cost (100), access to nature (96) and childcare coverage (79). Weakest on public transit (14). Housing cost: Median price 1,770 € per m² of flats sold, 2024 and 2025. Figure for GURS's area “Trbovlje”.
- 660Strongest on international community (100), access to nature (99) and safety (81). Weakest on public transit (10). International community: 18.8% of residents are foreign citizens (1 January 2026; Slovenian average 10.5%).
- 758Strongest on cultural scene (100), housing cost (87) and restaurants and bars (81). Weakest on public transit (13). Cultural scene: the average resident has 19.4 museums, theatres, cinemas and galleries within 3 km.
- 857Strongest on housing cost (100), restaurants and bars (98) and walkability (98). Weakest on airport access (11). Housing cost: Median price 1,775 € per m² of flats sold, 2024 and 2025. Figure for GURS's area “Murska Sobota”.
- 956Strongest on safety (87), access to nature (85) and restaurants and bars (85). Weakest on long-distance trains (0). Safety: 54.1 violent crimes and 78.6 burglaries of homes per 100,000 residents, 2024 (Slovenian average 95.5 and 94.6). Figure for the Goriška statistical region: none is published for the municipality alone.
- 1056Strongest on access to nature (90), international community (82) and safety (81). Weakest on public transit (4). Access to nature: 41% of the land within 1 km of homes is park, forest or open nature. Citywide: 71.9%.
Best places in Slovenia by priority
Each starting point is a preset in the tool above. It raises the factors named and lowers a few others. The five highest-scoring places under each:
Family raises safety and childcare coverage to 5, and access to nature, healthcare and walkability to 4.
- Ljubljana, Osrednjeslovenska: 78
- Maribor, Podravska: 76
- Trbovlje, Zasavska: 71
- Murska Sobota, Pomurska: 68
- Kranj, Gorenjska: 67
Budget first raises housing cost to 5, and safety, bike friendliness, healthcare, long-distance trains, public transit and walkability to 4.
- Maribor, Podravska: 85
- Murska Sobota, Pomurska: 71
- Ljubljana, Osrednjeslovenska: 70
- Celje, Savinjska: 68
- Trbovlje, Zasavska: 67
Car-free raises bike friendliness, public transit and walkability to 5, and long-distance trains to 4.
- Maribor, Podravska: 93
- Ljubljana, Osrednjeslovenska: 84
- Celje, Savinjska: 63
- Murska Sobota, Pomurska: 56
- Kranj, Gorenjska: 53
Frequent flyer raises long-distance trains and airport access to 5, and international community, restaurants and bars and cultural scene to 4.
- Ljubljana, Osrednjeslovenska: 96
- Maribor, Podravska: 90
- Kranj, Gorenjska: 79
- Celje, Savinjska: 70
- Trbovlje, Zasavska: 66
Questions about where to live in Slovenia
What is the best place to live in Slovenia?
It depends on what you need from a place, which is why the Slovenia City Finder re-ranks as you set your priorities. With all 13 factors weighted equally, Maribor, Ljubljana and Celje score highest of the 38 places compared. Change the starting point and the answer changes: Family puts Ljubljana first, Budget first puts Maribor first, Car-free puts Maribor first and Frequent flyer puts Ljubljana first.
What are the best places to live in Slovenia for families?
The Family starting point raises safety and childcare coverage to 5, and access to nature, healthcare and walkability to 4. With it, Ljubljana, Maribor, Trbovlje, Murska Sobota and Kranj score highest.
Which places in Slovenia are easiest to live in without a car?
The Car-free starting point raises bike friendliness, public transit and walkability to 5, and long-distance trains to 4. With it, Maribor, Ljubljana, Celje, Murska Sobota and Kranj score highest.
Where is housing most affordable in Slovenia?
On the housing cost factor, the highest scores go to Murska Sobota, Trbovlje, Kočevje, Slovenska Bistrica and Slovenske Konjice. Murska Sobota: Median price 1,775 € per m² of flats sold, 2024 and 2025. Figure for GURS's area “Murska Sobota”.
Which places in Slovenia score highest for safety?
On the safety factor, the highest scores go to Nova Gorica, Ajdovščina, Kranj, Škofja Loka and Jesenice. Nova Gorica: 54.1 violent crimes and 78.6 burglaries of homes per 100,000 residents, 2024 (Slovenian average 95.5 and 94.6). Figure for the Goriška statistical region: none is published for the municipality alone. The safety score is built from official crime figures. A low score means more recorded crime than other places on this list, not that a place is unsafe; How the scores work explains the measure.
Where does the data come from?
The Slovenia City Finder compares 38 places on 13 factors using official statistics and open data. The figure behind every score is shown beside it, and each source is listed under How the scores work and at the foot of this page. The methodology sets out how every city finder turns figures into scores.
Does the City Finder tell me whether I can move to Slovenia?
No. It is an informational research tool that compares places using general statistics. It does not assess eligibility for any visa, residence permit or citizenship, and nothing in it is legal, immigration, tax or financial advice. For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU.
About the Slovenia City Finder
The Slovenia City Finder compares 38 places across Slovenia on 13 factors: housing cost, safety, bike friendliness, access to nature, international community, healthcare, long-distance trains, airport access, public transit, restaurants and bars, cultural scene, walkability and childcare coverage. Every factor starts at the same weight. Raise the ones you care about, lower or switch off the ones you don't, and the ranking and map re-sort as you go. You can shortlist places, compare them side by side, and copy a link that reopens your exact setup. Ljubljana and Maribor open up into their neighborhoods.
It is built for Americans weighing a move to Slovenia, whether through citizenship by descent, a visa or another route, who want to turn a long list of places into a shortlist worth visiting. Ljubljana, Maribor and Kranj are on the list, and so are smaller places that rarely make the usual rankings. Scores are built from official statistics and open data, the figure behind each score is shown next to it, and the sources are listed at the foot of this page. The methodology explains how a figure becomes a score.
For visa and residence routes, see Move Me To EU, Karte Global's visa and relocation practice. Considering more than one country? Browse every city finder, or compare places across the whole EU on one scale in the EU City Finder.
How the scores work
Each figure is turned into a 0 to 100 score. Most factors are scored half by comparison and half on a fixed scale. The comparison half ranks the places against each other: the weakest twentieth score 0 and the strongest twentieth score 100. The fixed half measures each place from zero up to the level of the strongest, so a town is not marked zero merely for coming last on a list of good options. Prices and journey times have no natural zero and are scored by comparison only. Public transit is already a percentage of residents and is used as it stands, and cycling is scored on a fixed scale (see the table).
Places are Slovenia's municipalities (občine) of 15,000 or more residents, plus Bled. Slovenian municipalities include the villages and countryside around their town, so figures averaged over residents (walking, transit, restaurants) are lower for municipalities with many villages than for the town centre itself. Neighborhoods are compared only with other neighborhoods of the same city, so a neighborhood score of 80 in Maribor and 80 in Ljubljana are not the same thing. A score is a comparison, not a grade, and the figure behind every score is shown next to it.
Your overall match is not a flat average. Weights are squared, so a factor at 5 counts nearly three times as much as one at 3. The result is stretched so that strong matches separate from middling ones. A place that excels on something you rated 4 or 5 earns a small bonus, shown as "strong fit"; one that does badly on it takes a penalty, shown as "weak fit". Where a place has no figure for a factor, that factor is left out of its match and the others carry the weight.
Badges: Measured a published official statistic or survey result. Derived calculated by us from published data. Editorial written or judged by us: only short notes, which never affect a score. Planned not in the score yet.
Reading the safety score. Violent crime counts twice as much as burglary of homes. Half of the score ranks the places on this list against each other, so the places with the most recorded violence and burglary get little for that half however safe they are by international standards. The other half is absolute, on a fixed scale that does not depend on the other places: no recorded violent crime or burglary would score 100, and the Slovenian average scores 76. A low score means "more recorded crime than other Slovenian places", not "unsafe". Across Slovenia the police recorded 95.5 violent crimes (intentional homicide, assault and robbery) and 94.6 burglaries of homes per 100,000 residents in 2024. The figures are published by statistical region, so a quiet town in a busy region takes the region's rate, and every place in one region scores the same. The figure behind each score is shown so you can judge the gap for yourself.
Reading the housing figure. The Surveying and Mapping Authority (GURS) publishes the median price paid per square metre for flats sold on the secondary market each year, from the national register of property sales, for market areas it draws around each town. Some areas join a town with its neighbours (for example Domžale with Trzin and Mengeš), and Ljubljana's and Maribor's figures are for the whole city market. The figure is the average of the 2024 and 2025 medians, which damps the swings of small markets. It is a guide to what buying a flat costs, not a rent.
Where residents live. Factors measured near home (cycling, nature, transit, restaurants, culture, walking) are averaged over residents, using the Eurostat Census 2021 population grid of 1 km squares (Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia data), spread evenly over 200 m squares inside each municipality.
Reading the train and airport figures. Train counts and journey times come from the published timetables for one ordinary Tuesday, 17 November 2026. Engineering works and seasonal changes move these figures, most of all for smaller stations. Long-distance trains here are InterCity Slovenija, InterCity, EuroCity, EuroNight, international trains and railjets; regional and local trains are not counted. Stations within 2 km of a place's boundary count, so Bled is credited with the trains at Lesce-Bled. Treat these two factors as a snapshot of this season, and check a route you would rely on.
Neighborhood view uses Ljubljana's 17 district communities (četrtne skupnosti) and Maribor's 11 city districts (mestne četrti), from the Surveying and Mapping Authority's register of spatial units. Residents and the share born abroad are estimated from the 2021 census grid of 1 km squares, so figures near neighborhood edges are approximate. Neighborhood view uses only the factors that can be measured inside a city.