VISUALIZED: Czechia has over 1 million foreigners—where do they come from?

New statistics show exactly which nationalities make Czechia their home, with surprising inclusions such as Mauritian, Samoan, and Eswatini.

Expats.cz Staff

Written by Expats.cz Staff Published on 23.01.2025 14:57:00 (updated on 27.01.2025) Reading time: 1 minute

An increasing number of foreigners are choosing to make Czechia their home. According to the latest data from the Ministry of the Interior, the number of foreigners with a long-term residence permit in the Czech Republic has risen by approximately 150 percent in the past decade alone, reaching just over 1 million today.  

The largest contributor to this increase is Ukrainian refugees who came to the Czech Republic after the full-scale war with Russia began in early 2022. While Ukrainians represent the largest group of foreigners, people from diverse nationalities also choose to settle in Czechia.

Compared to western Europe, Czechia attracts fewer economic migrants compared to Western Europe, with foreigners accounting for just 10 percent of the population.

However, the data shows that Czechia is home to a surprisingly diverse range of nationalities: 24 people from Cape Verde (in the central Atlantic Ocean), nine Malawians, and one person from the southeast Asian country of East Timor live long-term in Czechia. 

Source: Interior Ministry
Source: Interior Ministry

Even people from the Pacific island of Fiji (five), and the Caribbean country of Barbados (four) have chosen Czechia as their long-term home. Four people from the Arab state of Qatar have also traded heat for cold (at least during the winter) in Czechia.

It may come as some surprise that Czechia has over 400 Chileans living here long-term (some 12,749 kilometers away), and the Syrian community totals over 1,600. Czechia has over 2,000 Japenese residents, too.

Another eyebrow-raising stat is the number of people who sought temporary protection—or asylum—from Western countries. For example, two Brits and three Americans claimed asylum in Czechia.

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Prague has the highest number of registered foreigners, with over 354,000 at the end of 2024—a number that has grown strongly since in the past 12 months, and will most likely continue to do so as the country becomes an increasingly attractive place to work

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