Nitra

Nitra
Nitra
City
	View from the south side of Nitra Castle
	Flag Coat of arms
	Nitra Location in Slovakia
	Coordinates: 48°18′25″N 18°05′11″E / 48.30694°N 18.08639°E
Country	Slovakia
Region	Nitra
First mentioned	828
Government
• Mayor	Marek Hattas
Area
• Total	100.47 km2 (38.79 sq mi)
Elevation	190 m (620 ft)
Population (2024)
• Total	75,945
• Density	760/km2 (2,000/sq mi)
Time zone	UTC+1 (CET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code	949 01
Area code	+421-37
Car plate	NR
Website	www.nitra.sk

Nitra (Hungarian: Nyitra / Nyitria [archaic]; German: Neutra (pronunciation (help·info))) is a city in western Slovakia (and the fifth largest urban settlement in Slovakia) at the base of Zobor Mountain in the Nitra River valley.

Nitra is one of the oldest cities in Slovakia. It existed as a town since at least the early 9th century.

History

Nitra is a city with special history. People have lived there for at least 6000 years. It was an important center of the Celts (in the last few hundred years BC), and later the seat of the first known rulers of what is today Slovak territory, i.e. of :

the Germanic Quadi around 396? (disputed)
the Slavic/Slovak Principality of Nitra:
- an independent state (late 8th century - 833)
- Principality of Nitra as part of Great Moravia (833 - ?907)
- Principality of Nitra under Hungarian rule (?925/970 - 1107) [between 1000 and 1030 temporarily under Polish rule ]

Nitra is also site of the first known Church in Central and Eastern Europe, built in 828.

Population

Population statistics (10 years)^[3]
Year:	1994	2004	2014	2024
Count:	87,127	85,742	78,033	75,945
Progress:		-1.58%	-8.99%	-2.67%

Population statistics^[3]
Year:	2023	2024
Count:	76,499	75,945
Progress:		-0.72%

Ethnic composition

Census 2021 (1+ %)^[4]^[5]
Ethnicity	Number	Fraction
Slovak	71,552	91.16%
Not found out	5364	6.83%
Hungarian	1065	1.35%
Total	78,489

In year 2021 was 78,489 people by ethnicity 71,552 as Slovak, 5364 as Not found out, 1065 as Hungarian, 704 as Czech, 416 as Other, 271 as Romani, 149 as Russian, 124 as Rusyn, 123 as Polish, 110 as German, 100 as Ukrainian, 90 as Italian, 85 as Vietnamese, 52 as Moravian, 38 as Chinese, 33 as Serbian, 32 as Jewish, 32 as Bulgarian, 27 as Croatian, 27 as Albanian, 25 as English, 23 as Greek, 21 as Romanian, 17 as Turkish, 16 as Austrian, 13 as French, 10 as Irish, 7 as Canadian, 4 as Iranian, 2 as Silesian and 1 as Korean.

Note on population

The difference between the population numbers above and in the census (here and below) is that the population numbers above are mostly made up of permanent residents, etc.; and the census should indicate the place where people actually mainly live.
For example, a student is a citizen of a village because he has permanent residence there (he lived there as a child and has parents), but most of the time he studies at a university in the city.