Foreign mothers fueling Czech births: 1 in 10 newborns now have a non-Czech mom

• Data shows population increases in the Czech Republic between January and June 2023 were due to positive net foreign migration. Natural population change (births minus deaths) was actually negative.
• Roughly 79,800 people immigrated to the Czech Republic in the first half of 2023, while around 22,300 emigrants left. This resulted in a net foreign migration gain of 57,500 people.
• Foreign migration flows have helped offset the declining natural change, as births have been falling year-over-year while deaths still outpace births. The population would be shrinking without immigration.
• Citizens of Ukraine are a major driver of foreign migration flows. Ukrainians dominated both immigration to and emigration from the Czech Republic in the reported period.
• One in 10 births in the Czech Republic are now to foreign-born mothers, highlighting the contribution of immigrant communities to young families and newborns. 47.7 percent of children were born out of wedlock.

Central Bohemia continues to be the most populous region of the Czech Republic (1,449,495) while Prague, South Moravian, and Moravian-Silesian regions also have more than a million inhabitants. On the contrary, the Karlovy Vary Region has the fewest inhabitants (294,923 people recorded at the end of June). In almost all regions, the number of inhabitants increased in the first half of the year. The only exception was the Ústí Region, where 631 people died during that timeframe.