The CZSO has published two new datasets from the 2021 Census providing a closer look at the distribution and migration of the population – place of residence at the time of birth and place of residence 1 year prior to the Census.
In addition to the place of usual residence on the date of the Census, which is the basis for the territorial classification of all Census data, the CZSO also asked all residents in the 2021 Census about their place of residence 1 year prior to the Census and their place of residence at the time of their birth, i.e., the first place they lived after birth.
Comparing the data on place of residence at birth and place of residence at the Census provides an interesting picture of migration during the lifetime of the population, i.e. in the long term. Half (50.4%) of the Czech population who reported their place of residence at birth lived in the same municipality at the time of birth as in the 2021 Census. A further 14.6% of the population reported another municipality in the same district as their place of residence at birth, and 17.1% of the population reported another region as their place of residence at birth. 6.5% of persons declared their residence at the time of birth abroad.
There are considerable differences between regions in these figures, which partly reflect the territorial structure and partly how attractive a region is for migration or how attached its inhabitants are to their place of residence. The share of the population with usual residence at birth and during the Census in the same municipality was the lowest at 41.6% in the Středočeský Region, while in all Moravian regions these persons made up more than half of the population. Another municipality in the same district was the place of residence at the time of birth for the highest proportion of the population in the Vysočina Region (21.6%). With a proportion of 27.9% and 27.3% of the population living in another region at the time of birth, the Capital City of Prague and the Středočeský Region stood out among the others. The capital city of Prague also stood out with a significantly higher share of the population living abroad at the time of birth (15.6%).
A comparison of the place of residence 1 year prior to the Census and at the time of the Census shows that only a small proportion of the population moved in this single year. For 96.1% of the population of Czechia aged 1 year and over for whom this figure was reported, the place of residence one year prior to the Census was the same as at the time of the Census. 1.3% of the population resided in a different municipality of the district one year prior to the Census and 1.3% in a different region the year before the Census. The proportion of persons living abroad in the year before the Census was 0.5%.
The published results in the form of tables and cartograms up to the level of regions are available on the website www.scitani.cz. The data for all territorial units up to the level of municipalities and municipality or administrative districts are available in the CZSO Public Database.