Migration offers a lifeline to Czechia's record-breaking population decline

With more than one in 10 residents in Czechia now foreign, migration has helped Czechia weather its sharpest natural population drop on record for the first three quarters of the year, according to new data released today by the Czech Statistical Office.

The CZSO reports that, as of end-2024, Czechia was home to almost 1.1 million legally residing foreigners. Nearly two-thirds held temporary residence, including long-term visa holders from non-EU countries, refugees, and EU citizens with registered residence. EU citizens make up one-fifth of the total share of all foreigners in Czechia.

Ukrainians dominated the numbers, followed by Slovaks and Vietnamese, together accounting for 71.3 percent of all non-Czechs. These groups continued to grow compared with 2023, along with rapidly rising communities of Filipinos (3,392 more year on year), Mongolians (1,408 extra), and Chinese (an increase of 1,114).

Czechia has also welcomed foreigners from far-and-wide, perhaps much more unexpected areas. Forty-five Namibians call Czechia home, according to Foreign Police data, and the country now hosts 63 people from Tanzania. Two North Koreans now permanently reside in the country, joined by 12 Haitians and seven people from the Pacific island of Fiji.

Employment among foreigners also increased: 845,468 were registered as employees on a standard work contract, and 131,738 held trade licenses, up 2.6 percent and 11.3 percent from the previous year.

School enrollment hit a 22-year high, driven largely by Ukrainian refugees, CZSO figures show. Foreign students made up 7.4 percent of primary school students and almost 4.2 percent of secondary school students (a sizable increase of almost 24 percent). Almost one in five of all university students are also from abroad.

Czechia’s population stood at almost 10.9 million at the end of September, down 12,300 from January, according to the CZSO. The loss came despite a significant net migration gain of 12,771 people in the first nine months of this year.

From January through September, 85,161 people immigrated to Czechia, about 10 percent fewer than a year earlier. Still, the inflow remained strong enough to support population levels, with September’s monthly figure, 16,700 newcomers, the highest since late 2022.

“The [immigration] increase is due to the new possibility of men aged 18 to 22 traveling from Ukraine,” said Michaela Němečková, CZSO demographer.

Emigration totaled 72,390 for the period, about 900 fewer than last year, which statisticians noted had been a record year for departures. Most emigrants were Ukrainian citizens whose temporary protection status had expired, following Russia’s 2022 wide-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The population would have fallen far more sharply without migration. Czechia recorded a natural decrease of 25,093 people in the first three quarters. Births were down nine percent year-on-year, continuing a four-year slide.

Nearly 25,100 more people died than were born, marking the most severe natural decline for this period in the country’s modern history. A third of all deaths occurred among people aged 75 to 84.

Every region except Prague and Central Bohemia saw declines. Central Bohemia remained the country’s most populous region with about 1.47 million residents, followed closely by Prague with more than 1.4 million.