One in 10 babies born in Czechia have non-Czech mother, new data shows
New official data shows that one in 10 babies being born here in Czechia have a non-Czech mother. This shift in demographics points to the increasing role that immigration is playing in shaping the population. I spoke to Michaela Němečková, who works for the Czech Statistics Office, about these developments.
“The increasing share of non-Czech mothers is closely connected with the continued increase of foreigners in the Czech Republic. It’s also closely connected to the increase of mixed nationality marriages, the share of marriages where at least one member of the couple has a citizenship other than Czech rose from nine percent to 12 percent over the last ten years. Regarding non-Czech mothers, the Czech Statistical Office has been collecting data since 2012, and over this period the percent of non-Czech mothers has been increasing, namely 5.3 percent in 2012, to 9.4 percent in 2022. This year, the preliminary share of the first half of the year is already higher, it’s about ten percent.”
Are there any specific nationalities that are driving this increase?
“For the whole period since 2012, there has been three countries where women form the majority of non-Czech mothers: Slovakia, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Till 2021, the most non-Czech mothers were Slovak, but in 2022, it’s Ukrainians. There has been a large increase in the number of mothers with Ukrainian nationalities of new-borns last year, it rose from 1800 to 3,600. This was connected partly due to the increase of refugees from the war in Ukraine. This year, the situation has not changed, Ukrainian mothers are driving these high numbers of non-Czech mothers in the first half of this year. There were almost 500 more live births with Ukrainian mothers. The Ukrainian mothers compose more than two-fifths of all non-Czech mothers of new-borns. On the other hand, the number of Slovak and Vietnamese mothers has decreased.”
I guess it’s fair to say that immigration is playing a significant role in shaping the new population here in Czechia?
“Yes, because the population of the Czech Republic is increasing these days by net migration. We are gaining a new population from immigration from Ukraine and Slovakia. Also the number of live births is much higher than deaths, so the natural population is decreasing.”
