New population-growth statistics show higher life expectancy for Czechia

Life expectancy in Czechia is back up after dropping due to the Covid pandemic and has returned to where it was in 2018.

The mortality rate decreased for all age categories over 35 in Czechia last year. Life expectancy at birth went up by two years to 76.1 for men, and by roughly 1.5 years to 82 for women, according to the Czech Statistical Office (ČSÚ).

In 2022, there were 120,207 deaths recorded in Czechia. This was down from 139,981 in 2021, the highest since the end of World War II. The first year affected by Covid, 2020, saw 129,289 deaths, which had been the most since 1987.

Life expectancy had been slowly increasing in Czechia and before that in Czechoslovakia for several decades until the Covid pandemic. A century ago, men lived an average of 53 years and women 56 years. The increase is due to better lifestyles, plus improvements in health care and the environment, which were especially evident in the 1990s, Terezie Štyglerová from ČSÚ's demographics team said.

Compared to 2021, there were significantly more marriages last year, but fewer deaths, births, and divorces.

The number of live births also fell last year. "After a temporary increase in the number of live births in 2021, some 12,000 fewer children were born alive last year, 99,800 in total," ČSÚ statistician Michaela Němečková said.

A decline in births was also apparent between 2018 and 2020, she added. “In 2022, the average number of children born to a woman also fell, from 1.83 to 1.66 year on year. A similar level of fertility was present in our country six years ago," Němečková said.

Marriages increased after dropping for two years, but were still about 400 short of the 2019 figure, which was the peak of a six-year rising trend in nuptials. Some 54,503 couples got married last year, which was 17 percent more than a year earlier. At the same time, 19,324 marriages ended in divorce, about 1,783 fewer year on year.

Overall, the population of Czechia increased to 10.53 million in 2022. The entire increase of almost 16,700 was due to the positive net migration. The balance of regular international migration reached 37,100 with 57,100 persons newly registering their stay in the Czech Republic and 20,100 persons terminating their stay. The population balance does not include persons granted temporary protection connected with the armed conflict in Ukraine.