Slovenia holds extensive data on household expenditure, income, education, employment, transfers, health and housing. Yet these sources are not connected in a system capable of answering five key questions.
How much do parents spend on a child?
How much do the state and municipalities contribute?
What is the value of unpaid work performed by families?
How many career opportunities do parents lose?
How long does the path to independence take?
Not merely the monthly household budget, but five categories of costs that are currently measured separately — or not at all.
Food, housing, childcare, school, transport, healthcare, activities, higher education and the first rental home.
Parental leave, benefits, tax relief, subsidies, education, scholarships and healthcare.
Care, supervision, transport, learning support and other family work — valued through market rates and foregone income.
Reduced working hours, interrupted careers, lower earnings and reduced pension entitlements.
Living with parents, support with renting or purchasing a home, prolonged insecurity and delayed parenthood.
A claim such as “a child costs EUR 200,000” would conceal major differences between families. The programme therefore proposes a system of scenarios.
| Scenario | Description |
|---|---|
| Basic | Minimum developmentally acceptable costs |
| Standard | The typical living standard of a Slovenian household |
| Extended | Activities, study away from home, mobility and greater housing support |
| Special Needs | Additional health, developmental or care-related costs |
| Delayed Independence | Financial support until age 28, 30 or 35 |
IDP does not seek to assume the roles of the statistical office or universities. We act as an initiator and connector — an additional bridge between existing fields of expertise. Each partner contributes within its own mandate.
Co-design of the research question, interministerial coordination and placement within a national research programme.
Methodology, Household Budget Survey, EU-SILC, microdata and data-source linkage.
Child well-being, vulnerable families, regional differences and relevant burden indicators.
Reference budgets, tax-and-benefit microsimulation and fiscal effects.
Household economics, youth life courses, vulnerable groups, education and law.
NIJZ, FURS, ZPIZ, ZZZS, ZRSZ, the Housing Fund of the Republic of Slovenia, municipalities, social work centres and family organisations.
Team formation, concept development, institutional outreach and initial methodological meetings. → Partners’ letter of intent.
For each source: institution, period, age, region, access and gaps. → A Slovenian data map.
A model-based estimate by family type, clearly presented as an estimate rather than a directly measured value.
150–300 households, expenditure and time-use diaries, and interviews. The pilot establishes what can be measured reliably.
At least 2,000 households, linkage of survey and administrative data, and international comparison.
The same people followed over time — from birth to parenthood. The programme measures trajectories, not merely snapshots.
Average costs by age, region, household type, income and number of children.
The share of income, time and assets that a household devotes to children.
Education, employment, income, housing and dependence on parents.
The difference between the desired and actual age of independence — and between desired and realised family plans.
Which measures genuinely reduce the burden, shorten dependence and enable young people to realise their life plans?
The research does not reduce the value of a child to a monetary amount, blame young people or parents, or promote arguments for or against childbearing. It is designed to reveal real conditions, the distribution of costs, inequalities and opportunities for better public policy.
The list of completed Demographic Briefings is updated as new events take place. The first public presentation was held at Castle Festival, bringing the project's findings closer to a wider audience.
| Date | Event | Location | Format and reach |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 July 2026 | Castle Festival — first public Demographic Briefing | Fara, Slovenia | Expert stand-up presentation before an audience of several hundred visitors Read the news article → |
Total: 1 completed Demographic Briefing.
We present the initiative and listen to where your institution sees its potential contribution.
Together, we define the role, data contribution and scope of your institution’s participation.
We align the research question, methodology and timeline.
First shared objective: A White Paper, “The Cost of Growing Up in Slovenia — Data, Gaps and a Proposal for National Measurement”, setting out what is known, what remains unknown and what Slovenia should begin to measure.
We invite institutions, researchers and partners to join the consortium. We will provide the concept note and proposed research programme.
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