Road goods transport has been growing sharply since Slovenia joined the EU, as the volume of tonne-kilometres of the Slovenian transport carriers increased by more than 2,5 times in the period 2004-2019. After the pandemic-related halt, the volume has returned to its previous levels.The growth of freight transport and transit in Slovenia has been constant in road, rail and maritime transport since independence, despite intermediate economic problems in the EU during the recession 2008-2014. The exception is air freight transport, which has stagnated for years after a sharp decline in 2008.

In Slovenia, the volume of passenger transport demand has been increasing over the past few decades. Particularly, the volume of one of the most environmentally burdensome modes of transport – car transportation – has been growing. Its share places Slovenia in an unenviable third place among EU member states where residents rely most heavily on private cars for their journeys. Until the pandemic, the volume of the most environmentally damaging mode of transport, air travel, was also growing rapidly.

In the last decades, major emissions of air pollutants from transport decreased. However, road transport remains one of the most significant sources of air pollution. In Slovenia in 2022 road transport contributed 43 % to the total emissions of nitrogen oxides. In the period 1990-2022 emissions of substances that cause acidification and emissions of ozone precursors in transport sector declined by 71 % and 76 %. In the period 2000-2022 emissions of particulate matter decreased by 51 %.

In the period 1992–2023 nitrogen surplus in Slovenian agriculture decreased. Trend analysis for this period shows that gross nitrogen surplus decreased on average by 1.4 kg N/ha per year or by 54%, and the net surplus by 1.2 kg N/ha per year or by 85%. The lower surplus was mainly due to a 43% increase in nitrogen removal by crops and a 6% decrease in nitrogen input per hectare of utilized agricultural area. A lower excess of nitrogen indicates better nitrogen management in agriculture and consequently a reduction in emissions of nitrogen compounds into the environment.

The emission of primary particles, smaller than 10 µm (PM₁₀), particles smaller than 2.5 µm (PM_2.5) and all total suspended particles (TSP) have decreased in the period 2000-2022 in Slovenia by 23 %, 33 % and 8 %. The main source of emissions of particulate matter are households, mainly due to use of biomass for domestic heating.