Population and Demographics

The vast majority of the inhabitants of the Czech Republic are Czechs (90.4%); the largest minorities are Slovaks (1.9%), Poles (0.5%), Germans (0.4%), and Roma people.

Polish Minority

The most concentrated linguistic minority in the Czech Republic are ethnic Poles, historically the majority, today constituting about 10% of the Karviná and Frýdek-Místek districts population. Poles have the right to use their language in official dealings, the public media (the Czech TV and the Czech Radio) regularly broadcast in Polish, and there are many Polish primary and secondary schools in the area. The Polish minority has been decreasing substantially since World War II as education in Polish was difficult to obtain, while Czech authorities did not permit bilingual signs to maintain Polish awareness among the population.

German Minority

The German minority of the Czech Republic, historically the largest minority of the country, was almost entirely removed when 3 million were forcibly expelled in 1945-6. According to the 2001 census there remain 13 municipalities and settlements in the Czech Republic with more than 10% Germans.

There is no bilingual education system in Western and Northern Bohemia, where the German minority is most concentrated. However, this is in large part due to the absence of German speaking youth, a heritage of the post-war policy of the Communist government.

Greek Minority

Another influential minority are Greeks. Large numbers of Greeks arrived in Czechoslovakia when the Greek Civil War broke out. In total, more than 12,000 Greeks immigrated to Czechoslovakia between 1948 and 1950. Today, there are about 7,000 Greeks in the country, mostly in the towns of Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Jeseník, Krnov, Trinec, Karviná, ?umperk, Vrbno pod Pradedem, Havírov and Bohumín (most of these towns are in the Moravian-Silesian Region).

Vietnamese Minority

There are also Asian minorities in the Czech Republic; the largest being the Vietnamese one. Vietnamese people came to Czechoslovakia for the first time in 1956 and then the number of new migrants grew until the fall of communism. One of the towns with the largest Vietnamese communities is Cheb.

Facts and Figures

• Population: 10,228,744
• Age Structure:
  • 0-14 years: 14.1% (male 738,391/female 698,999)
  • 15-64 years: 71.2% (male 3,657,877/female 3,627,493)
  • 65 years and over: 14.7% (male 588,531/female 917,453)
• Median Age:
  • Total: 39.5 years
  • Male: 37.9 years
  • Female: 41.3 years
• Population Growth Rate: -0.071%
• Birth Rate: 8.96 births/1,000 population
• Death Rate: 10.64 deaths/1,000 population
• Net Migration Rate: 0.97 migrant(s)/1,000 population
• Sex Ratio:
  • At birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
  • Under 15 years: 1.056 male(s)/female
  • 15-64 years: 1.008 male(s)/female
  • 65 years and over: 0.641 male(s)/female
  • Total population: 0.951 male(s)/female
• Infant Mortality Rate:
  • Total: 3.86 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Male: 4.21 deaths/1,000 live births
  • Female: 3.49 deaths/1,000 live births
• Life Expectancy at Birth:
  • Total population: 76.42 years
  • Male: 73.14 years
  • Female: 79.88 years
• Total Fertility Rate: 1.22 children born/woman
• HIV/AIDS:
  • Adult prevalence rate: less than 0.1%
  • People living with HIV/AIDS: 2,500
• Ethnic Groups:
• Czech 90.4%
  • Moravian 3.7%
  • Slovak 1.9%
  • Other 4%
• Religions:
  • Roman Catholic 26.8%
  • Protestant 2.1%
  • Other 3.3%
  • Unspecified 8.8%
  • Unaffiliated 59%
• Languages:
  • Czech 94.9%
  • Slovak 2%
  • Other 2.3%
  • Unidentified 0.8%
• Literacy:
  • Total population: 99%
  • Male: 99%
  • Female: 99%