The population of the Czech Republic fell by 41,000 in the first quarter of this year to 10.86 million, as more people died than were born, the Czech Statistical Office (CSU) said today.
Foreign migration was also net negative, with around 62,300 people leaving the country, ten times more than in the first quarter of 2023. About 30,500 people immigrated to the Czech Republic.
The number of marriages, births and deaths decreased year-on-year.
“The population decline stemmed mainly from the high number of emigrants, a large proportion of which were people whose temporary protection expired at the end of March and did not apply for an extension. Thus, foreign migration ended with a negative balance of 31,800 in the first quarter,” said Michaela Nemeckova from CSU’s Demographic Statistics Department.
The fact that 9,200 more people died than were born contributed to the population decline. In the first three months of this year, 20,300 babies were born, down by 2,600 year-on-year, while 29,500 people died, about 1,000 fewer than in the same period last year. Statisticians have been regularly recording more deaths than births in the first quarter since 2011. The deepest population decline was during the COVID pandemic in the first three months of 2021, when 19,000 more people died than were born.
Statisticians recorded 3,200 marriages from the beginning of January to the end of March, down 800 year-on-year. There were over 5,000 divorces, according to preliminary data, about 100 more than in the first quarter of last year.
