Preliminary results of the 2011 Population and Housing Census

This press release comments on the most important changes in the society found in the Census; detailed information and figures are in tables at www.scitani.cz. All data are related to 26 March 2011.

Population of the CR increases; however, mainly thanks to foreigners

According to the Census, 10 562 214 inhabitants lived in the Czech Republic in spring 2011; it is by 332 154 people more than ten years before. Behind that, there is not only an increasing birth rate of the last few years, but also, primarily, immigration of foreigners – there are by 260.5% more foreigners in the CR than ten years before. Their number is almost half a million.

The most numerous group of foreigners in the CR are people with the citizenship of the Ukraine (117 810), followed by Slovaks (84 380) and Vietnamese (53 110), Russians (36 055), Germans (20 780) and Poles (17 856). In the Czech Republic, people from 182 countries were counted.

Compared to 2001, there were 97 182 more Ukrainians, 60 179 more Slovaks, 34 900 more Vietnamese, 28 359 more Russians or 17 342 more Germans. The biggest increment was in the group of Germans (+504.4%), Ukrainians (+471%), Russians (+368.5%) and Slovaks (+248.7%).

The biggest share of foreigners is in Prague, the Karlovarský Region, the Středočeský Region, and the Plzeňský Region.

Also the Census confirmed that our society is getting older. While the number of people in the productive age has increased during the ten years almost by 200 thousand, the number of people aged 65+ increased even by 260 thousand. On the contrary, the number of children up to 14 years has been constantly decreasing since the Census in 1980 the same as their share in the total population.

People are not willing to report their nationality any more, except for Moravians

The question about nationality (that differs from the state citizenship, because it is primarily a choice made according to feelings of each person) was an optional question in the Census. While in 2001 only 173 thousand people did not want to speak about their nationality, this year already 2.74 million inhabitants used the possibility not to answer the question.

The biggest number of people claimed Czech nationality (6 732 104) followed by the second most frequent nationality – Moravian (522 474) and the third Slovak (149 140). Despite the fact that many people have not stated any nationality, the number of people claiming Moravian nationality has significantly increased. In 2001, Moravian nationality was reported by 380 474 persons, i.e. 3.8% of those who claimed some nationality. This year the share increased to 6.7%. The biggest number of people filled in the Moravian nationality in the Jihomoravský Region. There it was almost a quarter of a million of inhabitants.

The Roma nationality was reported by the total of 13 150 inhabitants. Only a small part of them filled in only the Roma nationality (5 199). Most of them stated the Roma nationality in combination with another one, for example, the Roma and Czech, the Roma and Moravian and the like (7 951). In the 2001 Census, 11 746 people reported the Roma nationality – at that time it was 0.1% of those claiming some nationality. This year's result 13 150 is 0.2% of those, who reported some nationality.

Shares of believers have not changed much for individual churches; Jedi newly filled in

The question about religion was also optional and the same phenomenon as for nationality occurred there – people were not answering optional questions so often as in the previous censuses. This year, almost five million people used the possibility not to answer the question, while ten years ago it was only less than a million inhabitants.

The same as ten years ago, the most believers filled in the Roman Catholic Church (1 083 899), followed by the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren (51 936) and the third Czechoslovak Hussite Church (39 276).

Unlike in the previous Census, many people reported to be believers, however, they do not belong to any of the registered churches. This possibility was used by 707 649 people.

The same as in many other countries of the world (New Zealand, Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom, etc.) also in the Czech Republic many people reported to profess the moral values of the Knights of Jedi from the Star Wars film saga. In the Czech Republic, 15 070 inhabitants filled in Jedi as their religion. “Jedi” was filled in the most frequently by people in Prague (3 977 persons, which is 0.31% of all Prague inhabitants), the least support of “Jedi” is in the Vysočina Region (only 0.08% of the Region's population).

Number of persons with higher education is markedly increasing; number of persons without education is also growing

In the Czech Republic, the number of people with higher education is growing fast. While ten years ago it was 762 459 people, the 2011 Census registers already 1 117 830 persons with a diploma, which is an increase by 46.6%. Another extreme is that together with the number of university graduates also the number of people without education is increasing. It means those, who have not attended school at all. Ten years ago there were 37 932 such people, this year it was already 47 253, i.e. by 24.6% more.

The biggest number of people with higher education lives in Prague (249 714), in the Jihomoravský Region (143 968) and in the Moravskoslezský Region (120 668).

Prague also has the biggest number of people with higher education (22.5%). It means that every fifth person living in Prague completed higher education. The smallest number of people with higher education in total population is in the Karlovarský Region (7.2% of the Region's population).

The biggest number of those who have no education is in the Moravskoslezský Region (6 536), in the Ústecký Region (6 335) and in the Středočeský Region (5 372). The biggest share of people without education lives in the Ústecký Region and in the Karlovarský Region, where they make almost one percent of the population of the respective region.

Another interesting trend, which occurred during the Census, is that the number of people with secondary education without A-level examination is on the decrease (drop by 9%) and, on the contrary, the number of those with full secondary education with A-level examination or higher professional education is growing (increase by 15%).

Marriage not that interesting any more

The Census confirmed the trend of the recent time – an increasing number of divorces and a decreasing number of marriages.

The number of divorced men increased during the last ten years by 37.7%; now there are by 10.4% single men more. There are by 6.3% less men living in a marriage.

The number of divorced women has increased since the previous Census by 33.4%; now there are by 9.9% single women more. There are by 7.1% less women living in a marriage.

The largest share of divorced people is in the Karlovarský Region (11.9% of men, 14.1% of women) followed by the Ústecký Region (11.2% of men, 13.4% of women). The increase of the number of single people shows two facts – young people are getting married less than in the past and when they want to get married they leave it for a higher age, which is confirmed by demographic statistics. In the Census there was at the same time a question about registered partnership of persons of the same sex, which was reported by 2 055 persons. The question about registered partnership is new and therefore the data cannot be compared with any of the previous Census.

People return to heating with wood, turn away from coal

One of the questions in the Census was about how households are heated. In that area, three trends emerged.

1) The number of people, who heat with gas, is increasing only slowly due to the prices of gas. This year, gas is used for heating in 1.47 million households; ten years ago, it was 1.40 million households. The increase is thus rather small.

2) There was a significant increase of dwellings heated with wood. Now it is so in 293 660 households, while ten years ago it was only in 167 341 households. It is an increase by 76%.

3) On the contrary, coal is not used so much for heating as in the past. The number of dwellings heating with coal dropped over the last ten years by 40% (from 575 thousand to 346 thousand).

Municipalities are selling their housing stock; the number of dwellings in private ownership is thus markedly increasing

A phenomenon of recent years is the change of ownership structure of the housing stock. It is directly related to towns and municipalities selling municipal dwellings to tenants to private ownership and cooperative building societies transferring dwellings to the ownership of their members.

The number of dwellings in private ownership thus increased during the last 10 years by 150.8% from 421 654 to 1 057 452. On the contrary, the number of rental dwellings decreased by 37.3% and also the number of co-operative dwellings dropped by 21.2%.

Dwellings are also better equipped than in the past. A water closet directly inside the dwelling is nowadays in 96.5% of households, a bathroom is in 97.4% of dwellings, in which somebody is living.

Schedule for publication of further results

In Q3 2012, the CZSO will publish final results of the Census for the CR and regions by usual residence. In Q4 2012, it will be followed by detailed data on households and dwellings for the CR and regions and basic information about districts and municipalities. In Q1 2013, detailed data for districts, towns and municipalities should be available. In Q2 2013 it will be followed by data on commuting to work. In the second half of 2013, “Statistical Lexicon of Municipalities 2011” and “Atlas of the Population and Housing Census 2011” should be published.

At the turn of the year 2013–2014, the CZSO will transmit data for the Czech Republic to the European Commission.

Ondřej Kubala
Spokesperson for the 2011 Population and Housing Census project