Number of foreigners living in Czechia 1993-2023
The number of foreign citizens with permanent or long-term residency in Czechia increased in the observed period. In 1993, only 77,000 foreigners lived in Czechia; this figure rose to over 1.06 million in 2023. The significant increase between 2021 and 2022 was due to the hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees fleeing their country because of the Russian invasion.
Rising foreigners population
Long-term residency in Czechia is intended for people from third countries who plan on temporarily staying for more than one year, including their previous visas in Czechia. The total number of foreign citizens living long-term in Czechia has risen since the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. In 1993, there were only 77.1 thousand foreigners living in the country. This number rose to over 1.1 million in 2022. As already mentioned, this number was inflated by the Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian aggression. In 2021, before the war started, the number amounted to 660.8 thousand.
Czechia has also become a more attractive place for international students to study. While in 2001, this group constituted only 4.3 percent of all students in Czechia, this figure increased to 18 percent in 2022. That year, Slovaks formed the largest group of international students, which is a logical outcome due to the complete mutual intelligibility between Czech and Slovak languages. This allows many Slovaks to study in their mother tongue.
How do Czechs view the foreigners?
When asked in the first quarter of 2023 for their opinions on foreigners, most Czechs viewed them as a possible health risk regarding the spread of illnesses. Other people thought they also attributed to the country's rise in crime. Furthermore, the largest group disagreed with the statement that foreigners enriched the Czech culture, a share amounting to nearly a third of the respondents. Regarding all the topics, a group of around a fourth to a third of the population usually remained neutral, neither agreeing nor disagreeing with the statements.
