Population change - 1st quarter of 2020

The population of the Czech Republic continued to grow during the first quarter of 2020, but significantly less than in previous quarters. The population increase by international migration was more than half lower year-on-year and also the decrease by natural change was greater this year. The state of emergency and its restrictions were reflected in the record low number of marriages entered into in March.

During the first quarter, the population of the Czech Republic continued to grow. However, the population growth was only 425 people, and the population remained at 10.694 million. The balance of international migration was positive and reached 4.2 thousand. The balance of natural change reduced the population, as the number of deaths was by 3.8 thousand higher than the number of live births.

A total of 26.2 thousand children were born alive in the months of January to March, which was by 0.7 thousand less than in the first quarter of 2019. The number of children born to married women decreased more significantly (by 536) than the number of children born to unmarried women (by 149) in the year-on-year comparison. In terms of birth order, the highest year-on-year decrease was registered for children born in the third or higher order (by 327). The live births outside marriage represented 48.9% of all births, and this share was by 0.7 pp higher than in the first quarter of the previous year. The most children (30% of the total) were born to women aged from 29 to 32 years.

The number of deaths stood at 30.0 thousand in the first quarter, almost by 200 less than in the same period of 2019. As far as monthly numbers are concerned, only March number increased slightly year-on-year (by 2% to 10.1 thousand). The highest monthly number of deceased people (10.2 thousand) was registered in January, as in the previous year. In the first quarter, only the number of deaths aged 75–79, 90–94 and 95–99 increased year-on-year, whereas the number of deaths in all other age groups decreased. More than a third deceased women (37%) were aged 80–89 at the time of death, while one third of deceased men were aged 70–79. A total of 66 children died during their first year of life in the first quarter of 2020, and infant mortality rate was 2.5‰.

A total of 3.5 thousand marriages were entered into by the inhabitants of the Czech Republic during the first quarter, almost by 600 fewer than in the previous year. The lower number of marriages was mainly due to low marriage rate in March, when the possibility of entering into a marriage was affected by epidemic prevention measures. According to the data available so far, there were less than 600 marriages entered into in March, which represents the lowest monthly number of marriages during the more than 100-year history of the Czech Republic. On the contrary, the number of marriages concluded in February was unusually high this year (2.2 thousand, the highest number in February since 2003), to which interesting dates in the calendar probably contributed. Up to a third of February's fiancées chose Saturday 22 February 2020 for their wedding ceremony, and there were also a lot of ceremonies on Saturday 29 February and Thursday 20 February.

The Czech courts issued 5.2 thousand decisions about divorces this year by the end of March, by 0.9 thousand less in the year-on-year comparison. However, the lower number of divorces is probably also due to limited court activity in the state of emergency. The majority of divorces (58%) terminated marriages where the minor children lived. They amounted to 4.8 thousand minor children in total. On the contrary, a total of 42% divorces terminated marriages without minor children. In terms of duration of the marriage at divorce, there were most of divorces with duration from 2 to 7 years since the marriage. This group accounted for a quarter of all divorces.

According to the preliminary data taken from administrative data sources a total of 16.1 thousand persons immigrated from abroad to the Czech Republic in the first three months this year; by 0.8 thousand more than in the first quarter of 2019. The number of immigrants was higher year-on-year in January and February, while a year-on-year decline was recorded in March. The number of people emigrated from the Czech Republic increased by 6.0 thousand to 11.9 thousand in the first quarter. The increase in the number of emigrants was partly due to administrative acts related to the limitation of the validity of the certificate of temporary residence for EU citizens for a period of 10 years. However, their extent cannot be precisely determined from the available sources. The balance of net migration amounted to 4.2 thousand during the first quarter; it was a year-on-year decrease of more than half. The highest positive migration balance (as in previous years) was registered with citizens of Ukraine (4.7 thousand); the second highest was the migration balance of Russian nationals (0.8 thousand) and the third one belonged to nationals of Romania (0.3 thousand). Statistics of international migration also recorded considerable negative migration balances for subgroups of foreigners by citizenship; the highest negative migration balance was registered for citizens of Great Britain (-1.5 thousand) and citizens of Germany (-0.7 thousand), Poland (-0.6 thousand) and Slovakia (-0.5 thousand).

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Notes:
All data refer to the Czech Republic nationals and foreigners with permanent residence, the third-country nationals with visa for stay over 90 days or long-term residence permit, the EU nationals with temporary residence in the territory of the Czech Republic, and foreigners with asylum granted. The data take into account also information on events (marriages, births, and deaths) of Czech nationals with the permanent residence in the Czech Republic that occurred abroad.
All data for 2020 are preliminary.
Responsible manager: Mgr. Robert Šanda, director of Population Statistics Department, tel. +420 274 052 160, e-mail: robert.sanda@csu.gov.cz
Contact person: Mgr. Michaela Němečková, Demographic Statistics Unit, tel. +420 274 052 184, e-mail: michaela.nemeckova@csu.gov.cz
Data source: Demographic statistics – results of processing statistical reports of Obyv series
Divorces – Information system of the Ministry of Justice of the CR
Migration data – Information System of Inhabitants Records (Ministry of the Interior of the CR) and Alien Information System (Directorate of Alien Police)
End of data collection: 31 May 2020
Related publication: 130062-20 Population of the Czech Republic –1st quarter of 2020
https://www.czso.cz/current-product/41180
Next News Release: 11 September 2020