Apart from the immigrant community that makes up the vast majority of Serbs in Slovenia, there are a few villages in the southern region of White Carniola inhabited by descendants of Serbs (Uskoks) that fled from the Ottoman Empire in the 16th century, beginning in 1528 and permanent by 1593. These immigrants founded settlements in which descendants of Serbs live to these days: Bojanci, Marindol, Paunoviči, Adlešiči, Žuniči, Miliči and others. The majority of the community have kept the Serbian Orthodox faith and their distinctive culture, although they have been almost completely assimilated to their Slovene-speaking environment. Some of them became Uniate in the 17th and 18th century.

Serbs are, by large, first or second generation immigrants from other republics of former Yugoslavia. In the 2002 census, 38,964 people of Slovenia declared Serb ethnicity, corresponding to 2% of the total population, making them the largest ethnic minority in the country.