The country has an area of 30,442 square miles and a population of 10.2 million. The population is largely homogeneous with a dominant Christian tradition. However, in part as a result of 40 years of communist rule between 1948 and 1989, the majority of citizens do not identify themselves as members of any organized religion. In a 2008 opinion poll sponsored by the Stredisko Empirickych Vyzkumu (STEM) agency, 34 percent of respondents claimed to believe in God, while 39 percent identified themselves as atheists. Only 25 percent of citizens under the age of 29 professed a belief in God. Similarly, in a 2007 poll by the Public Opinion Research Centre (Centrum pro vyzkum verejneho mineni, or CVVM), 55 percent of citizens voiced a mistrust of churches, while only 28 percent stated that they trust them. There was a revival of interest in religion after the 1989 "Velvet Revolution;" however, the number of those professing religious beliefs or participating in organized religion has fallen steadily since then in every region of the country.
Thirty-three percent of the population belongs to the Roman Catholic Church, 3 percent to Protestant churches, 1 percent to the Czech Hussite Church, and 2 percent to other religious groups. Five percent of the population attends Catholic services regularly, and most live in the southern Moravian dioceses of Olomouc and Brno. One percent of the population are practicing Protestants. In 2004 Islam was registered as an officially recognized religion, and leaders of the local Muslim community estimate that there are several thousand Muslims in the country. There are two mosques, located in Brno and Prague, but prayer rooms are scattered throughout the country. The vast majority of the historic Jewish community, which numbered approximately 100,000 before the Nazi occupation of the area of today's Czech Republic, was killed during the Holocaust. There are approximately 3,000 persons officially registered as members of the Jewish community.
Population | Population (2009 est.) 10,211,904 |
Religious Demographics | Roman Catholic 26.8%, Protestant 2.1%, other 3.3%, unspecified 8.8%, unaffiliated 59% (2001 census) |
Ethnic Groups | Ethnic Groups Czech 90.4%, Maravian (Protestant) 3.7%, Slovak 1.9%, other 4% (2001 census) |
Languages | Languages Czech 94.9%, Slovak 2%, other 2.3%, unidentified 0.8% (2001 census) |
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