In 2018, more than half of Slovenia's land area was covered by forests (56% or 58% including shrubland), while other mostly natural vegetation accounted for 3%. Farmland occupied 34% of land area, while slightly less than 4% was artificial land, and less than 1% was water. In the periods 1996–2000, 2000–2006 and 2006–2012, land cover and land use changes were relatively small (they occurred on 0.12%, 0.13% and 0.09% of the entire territory, respectively). In the latest period 2012–2018 land cover and land use changes slightly increase (they occurred on 0,44 % ot the entire territory).

In Slovenia, built-up areas continue to increase, representing 5.7% of the land use structure in 2023. In the period 2019-2023 built-up areas were predominantly spread to grasslands (42%), forest (18.6%) and the category other (16.1%), with the total built-up area increasing by 1,618.9 ha over this period. Existing data sources in Slovenia have recently made it possible to evaluate the actual loss of land to development.

In recent years, the amount of wastewater treated by secondary or tertiary treatment processes increased, while primary treatment processes have closed. The amount of wastewater treated through secondary treatment processes increased by 150 % since 2000 or from 30 million m3 (in 2000) to almoust 45 million m3 (in 2019). There were almost no tertiary wastewater treatment processes in Slovenia in 2000, and in 2019, 72% of wastewater or 113 million m3 of wastewater was treated by tertiary process.

In general, the levels of pesticides in groundwater are decreasing. In Slovenian lowlands (the Drava and Mura river basins), which are characterised by intensive agricultural activity, certain pesticides, phytopharmaceuticals in particular, still exceed quality standards. Individual point sources of pollution can be a result of unskilled use of plant protection products.