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Czech census sees 65 % rise in number of people declaring Romani nationality

13 January 2022
2 minute read

During the 2021 census in the Czech Republic a total of 21 691 inhabitants declared themselves to be of Romani nationality; of those, just 4 458 listed Romani nationality as their sole national identification. Most (17 233) Romani respondents declared themselves to be of both Czech and Romani nationality, or of both Moravian and Romani nationality.

The data point is one of the first outcomes from last year’s census to be publicized today at a press conference by the Czech Statistical Office. The census was held between 27 March and 11 May 2021.

The voluntary question about nationality was answered by 68.4 % of the population. During the census 10 years ago, 13 150 people declared their Romani nationality, while 20 years ago just 11 746 people declared such nationality.

During the last 20 years, therefore, people’s willingness to declare their nationality as Romani has almost doubled. Compared to 2011, the number of Romani men and women declaring their nationality has risen by 65 %. 

The highest-ever number of Romani men and women to declare their Romani nationality (almost 33 000) was recorded in 1991, when the Czech Republic was still part of Czechoslovakia. According to the Czech Government’s Report on the State of the Romani Minority for 2020, an estimated 250 000 Romani men and women actually live in the country. 

That means just 8.7 % of the Romani people here have voluntarily declared their nationality to the authorities. Overall, the Czech population has grown during the last 10 years.

Last year more than 10.5 million people were living in the country. The vast majority reside in just four of the country’s 13 regions – Central Bohemia, Moravia-Silesia, South Moravia, and the capital, Prague.

The average age of the population is 42.7 years. The population is 1.7 years older on average today than it was a decade ago.

The census is held every decade, and not just in the Czech Republic. It facilitates the mapping and comparison of situations in various countries.

While many states use data from their own registers and then just take a representative sample of several thousand people to complete the 10-year picture, in the Czech Republic all inhabitants must complete the census. The country has not been maintaining the kind of registers from which the necessary information can be obtained. 

Number of inhabitants declaring Romani nationality

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