Last year, the number of deaths was significantly higher than the number of live births, according to a report from the Czech Statistical Office (CZSO) this week. There were also year-on-year decreases in the number of births, marriages and divorces in 2020. Photo Credit: KK / BD.
Czech Rep., Mar 30 (BD) – The population of the Czech Republic increased by 7,800 in 2020, reaching 10.702 million. The growth was considerably lower than in previous years, and the whole increase was due to net immigration.
The low population growth last year was due to a year-on-year decrease in net migration of nearly 40%, and an even more significant decrease in the natural population of 19,000 (compared to 100 in 2019).
“A similar gap between the number of deaths and the number of children born, of around 20,000, was last recorded in the second half of the 1990s. At that time, however, the reason was a rapid decline in the number of births, while last year the cause was the high number of deaths,” said Terezie Štyglerová, Head of the CSO Demographic Statistics department.
The total number of deaths in 2020 was over 129,000, the highest since 1987, and a year-on-year increase of 17,000 deaths (15%).
The population increased in 2020 in five of the fourteen regions. As in previous years, the largest increase in population was in the Central Bohemian Region (13,000) and in Prague (11,000).
In Prague alone, natural change also contributed to the growth in population, although the main driving force of population growth was still immigration. The most significant total decrease in population (7,700) was recorded in the Moravian-Silesian Region.
110,000 children were born in the Czech Republic in 2020, 2,000 fewer than in 2019, and the third consecutive year of a decreasing number of births.
After six years of continuous growth, the number of marriages decreased by 9,500 year-on-year in 2020, to 45,400. 20,000 marriages were legally terminated by divorce, a decline of 2,500.
56,000 people migrated into the Czech Republic in 2020, a drop of 10,000 compared to 2019. The number of emigrants increased by 7,500 to 29,000.
