What do the latest population stats reveal about Czech society today?

Newly released data by the Czech Statistical Office offers insights into trends in Czech society via numbers related to births, death, marriages, and overall population growth.

These were some of the key takeaways from the data, released Monday, Sept. 12, which reflect how the Russian invasion and the Covid-19 pandemic affected Czech population numbers in the first half of 2022.

The population of the Czech Republic increased by 9,000 during the first half of the year to 10.526 million. Compared to the first half of 2021, the increase in the number of inhabitants was solely due to foreign migration (18,700). 

Some 33,800 people immigrated to the Czech Republic from abroad, while 15,200 people were registered as emigrants. This data doesn't take into account refugees who were granted temporary protection in connection with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Numbers from the Aliens Information System show there were 373,000 refugees from Ukraine in the Czech Republic at the end of the first half of the year.

Recent citizenship data from the 2021 census shows that there were approximately 45,000 with dual or multiple citizenships living in the territory of the Czech Republic at the time of the census. The vast majority of them had citizenship from the Czech Republic and one other foreign country.

Compared to the first half of 2021, which was significantly affected by the Covid-19 epidemic, fewer deaths were reported his year. However, the number of children born was also lower.

"During the first half of the year, 50,000 children were born, 10 percent fewer year-on-year. The increase in the number of births in 2021 seems to have been temporary, Michaela Němečková from the Department of Demographic Statistics of the Czech Statistical Office said. Almost half of the children in Czechia were born to unmarried women, she added.

Compared to the first half of 2021, there were significantly fewer deaths this year (by 17,000 or 22 percent), but compared to the average from 2015–19, their number remained slightly above average by 4 percent due to the aging of the population. 

The predominance of the number of deaths over live births led to a natural decline in the population by 9,700 people. Though it was half as much as in the first half of 2021, the decline was significantly greater compared to the years 2017–20. Immigration numbers balanced the natural decline in population.

Statistics show that marriages in Czechia have increased significantly year on year. There were almost two-fifths more marriages than in the first half of the year compared to this time last year with 21,300 thousand engaged couples getting married, but less than in 2018 and 2019.

The number of marriages was significantly above average only in February (2,300), and most of them in the first half of the year took place in June (9,400). In terms of divorces, 10,400 marriages were divorced, half a thousand less year-on-year.