🇸🇮 Slovenia

Slovenia's median age of 44.9 is geriatric by Eastern European standards and reflects decades of youth flight to Austria, Italy, and Germany — Ljubljana is closer to the Austrian border than to many of its own regions. The 34.9% old-age dependency ratio masks a worse trajectory because the country has been quietly exporting its tax base and innovators for twenty years. Rising youth unemployment (11.2% → 15.3% in 12 periods) is the canary: even as young people leave, those who remain can't find work, meaning the emigration filter is no longer saving the labor market. Slovenia is a demographic tween — too developed to have Eastern Europe's birth rates, too small and peripheral to retain the talent it produces.

Slovenia adopted a National Artificial Intelligence Strategy in 2021 under the previous Janša government, refreshed under Golob with predictable EU-aligned 'human-centric, ethical AI' rhetoric. The strategy is light on industrial policy heft — at 2.1M population and €71B GDP, Slovenia lacks the fiscal scale to fund serious retraining infrastructure or sovereign AI capability. Most 'digital transition' funding flows through EU Recovery and Resilience Facility tranches, meaning Slovenia is implementing someone else's automation roadmap on someone else's timeline.