Demographics of the Czech Republic

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The majority of the 10.2 million inhabitants of the Czech Republic are ethnically and linguistically Czech (95%). Other ethnic groups include Germans, Roma, Poles and Hungarians. Historical minorities of, like those of Germans and Poles are declining due to assimilation. Roma community is growing. There is also a growing Vietnamese community. After the dissolution of Czechoslovakia, Slovaks staying in the Czech Republic comprised roughly 3% of the current population.

1 Minorities
2 Religion
3 Statistics
4 External links
5 References

[edit] Minorities

Minority	1991 Census <ref>Czech Statistical Office</ref>	2001 Census <ref name="2001 Census">Czech Statistical Office</ref>
Slovaks	314 877	193 190
Poles	59 383	51 968
Germans	48 556	39 106
Roma <ref name="Roma">In census people can leave the "nationality" field empty and they can also write down any nationality or ethnicity they want. Most of Roma people fill in the Czech nationality. Thus, the real number of Roma in the country is estimated to be around 220 000. Petr Lhotka: Romové v České republice po roce 1989</ref>	32 903	11 746 <ref name="Roma"/>
Magyars	19 932	14 672
Ukrainians	8 220	22 112
Vietnamese	421	17 462

[edit] Germans and Poles

The most concentrated linguistic minority in the Czech Republic are ethnic Poles, historically the majority, and today constituting between 10 and 45% of the population, in the Český Těšín district. 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 some 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.

The remaining German minority of the Czech Republic - 3 million were forcibly expelled (Expulsion of Germans after World War II) - and historically the largest minority of the country, is granted some rights in theory, however the actual use of German in dealings with officials is usually not possible. 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 governments.

According to the 2001 census there remain 38 and 13 municipalities and settlements in the Czech Republic with more than 10% Poles and Germans respectively.

The erection of bilingual signs is technically permitted since 2001, if a minority constitutes 10% of the population of a municipality. Requirement of signing a petition by the members of minority was cancelled, thus simplifying whole process.<ref>Kongres Polaków w RC, 29.10.2006</ref> Still only a couple of villages with large Polish minorities have bilingual signs (Vendryně/Wędrynia for instance). Many representatives of expellees organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region, yet their efforts are not supported by some of the current inhabitants, as the vast majority of the current population is not of German descent.

[edit] Greeks

Another influential minority are Greeks. Large numbers of people arrived to Czechoslovakia when the civil war in Greece have started. First transports of Greek children arrived in 1948 and 1949, since then another transports also with adults were conducted.<ref>Anthula Botu: Řekové v českých zemích 1948-2000</ref> They were partly leftists, communists and guerillas with their relatives, hence the willingness of Czechoslovak government to allow the immigration.<ref name="Greeks"/> This was viewed rather as a temporary solution. After the defeat of DSE and other left-wing guerillas, Greeks stayed in Czechoslovakia. In total more than 12 000 Greeks immigrated to Czechoslovakia in years 1948-1950.<ref name="Greeks">Marián Sloboda: „Až bude v Řecku mír, vrátíme se domů“. Řecká národnostní skupina v České republice, 25.3.2003</ref> Today, there are about 7000 Greeks in the country (3219 according to official 2001 Census)<ref name="Greeks"/>, mostly in the towns of Praha, Brno, Ostrava, Jeseník, Krnov, Třinec, Karviná, Šumperk, Vrbno pod Pradědem, Havířov and Bohumín (most of these towns are in Moravian-Silesian Region).<ref>Vangelis Liolios: Podkladové materiály pro Radu vlády pro národnostní menšiny o situaci řecké menšiny v České republice</ref>

[edit] Vietnamese

There are also Asian minorities in the Czech Republic. The largest is the Vietnamese one. During the communist era the governments of Czechoslovakia and Vietnam had a deal concerning the education of Vietnamese people in Czechoslovakia. Vietnamese people came to Czechoslovakia first time in 1956 and then the number of new migrants growed till the fall of communism. First generation Vietnamese work mostly as a small-scale businessmen on the markets. Second generation, raised in the Czech Republic, is viewed by many as a future elite of the country, because of very good results in schools.<ref>Milan Daniel: Kým budou malí čeští Vietnamci?, 11.8.2005</ref> Still many Vietnamese are without the Czech citizenship. One of the towns with the largest Vietnamese community is Cheb.

[edit] Religion

Most of the Czech population claim to be atheist or agnostic (60%). Major denomination and its estimated percentage population is traditional Roman Catholic (27,4%).<ref name="2001 Census"/>

[edit] Statistics

Population: 10,241,138 (July 2005 est.)

Age structure:
0-14 years: 14.7% (male 773,028; female 731,833)
15-64 years: 71.1% (male 3,651,018; female 3,627,006)
65 years and over: 14.2% (male 565,374; female 892,879) (2005 est.) Population growth rate: -0.05% (2005 est.) Birth rate: 9.07 births/1,000 population (2005 est.) Death rate: 10.54 deaths/1,000 population (2005 est.) Net migration rate: 0.97 migrant(s)/1,000 population (2005 est.) Sex ratio:
at birth: 1.06 male(s)/female
under 15 years: 1.06 male(s)/female
15-64 years: 1.01 male(s)/female
65 years and over: 0.63 male(s)/female
total population: 0.95 male(s)/female (2005 est.) Infant mortality rate: 3.93 deaths/1,000 live births (2005 est.) Life expectancy at birth:
total population: 76.02 years
male: 72.74 years
female: 79.49 years (2005 est.) Total fertility rate: 1.28 children born/woman (2005) [1] Nationality:
noun: Czech(s) (Czech language: Čech, plural: Češi or Čechové)
adjective: Czech (česká) Ethnic groups: Czech 90.4%, Moravian 3.7%<ref name="Mor and Sil">The Moravians and Silesians, lacking significant differencies in cultural traditions and ethnic or language characteristics from the Czechs, are officially not forming a minority (in political sense) and their percentages are often added to the one of Czechs. The results here reflect the right of anybody to identify him-/herself with any nationality or ethnic group, as stated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.</ref>, Slovak 1.9%, Polish 0.5%, German 0.4%, Silesian 0.1%<ref name="Mor and Sil"/>, Roma 0.1% (those officially claiming so, unofficial estimate is cca 2%), Hungarian 0.1%, other 2.8% (March 2001)

Ukrainians are the largest group of people without Czech citizenship living in the country.

Religions: Atheist and agnostic 60.0%, Roman Catholic 27.4%, Protestant 1.2%, Hussites 1.0%, Jehovah's Witnesses 0.2%, Eastern Orthodox 0.2%, other religions 2.8%, unknown 8.8% (March 2001) Languages: Czech, also in some regions Moravian dialects,Cieszyn Silesian dialect and Polish language in Těšínské Slezsko as well as various Sudeten German dialects that are currenlty in extreme danger of extinction. Literacy:
definition: NA
total population: 99.9% (1999 est.)
male: NA%
female: NA%