At the beginning of World War II the population of the Czech Republic reached its maximum (11.2 million).

Since 2005, natural growth has been positive, but in recent times the most important influence on the population of the Czech Republic has been immigration: approximately 300,000 during the 2010s.

They are descendants of Slavic people from the Black Sea-Carpathian region who settled in Bohemia, Moravia and parts of present-day Austria in the 6th century AD.

While some of the minorities have the whole social structure of Czech society[clarification needed] (Poles, Slovaks, Greeks and Ukrainians), other represent only some of the social groups (i.e. Russian newcomers of middle class, and Romani people who generally represent the underclass).

[18] 1 In 2011 a large part of the population did not claim any ethnicity, before the census it was widely mediatized that the question is not mandatory.

A special situation applies in the case of Moravians and Silesians, who are frequently allocated within the group of Czechs when it comes to the statistical data.

Minorities, which "traditionally and on a long term basis live within the territory of the Czech Republic" enjoy some privileges.

As of 2022 there are 14 such officially recognized minorities, which are (alphabetically): Belarusians, Bulgarians, Croatians, Germans, Greeks, Hungarians, Poles, Romani people, Russians, Rusyns, Serbians, Slovaks, Ukrainians and Vietnamese.

[22] Citizens belonging to the officially recognized minorities enjoy the right to "use their language in communication with authorities and in courts of law".

(The Administrative Rule) in its paragraph 16 (4) (Procedural Language) provides that a citizen of the Czech Republic who belongs to a national or an ethnic minority, which traditionally and on a long-term basis lives within the territory of the Czech Republic, has the right to address an administrative agency and proceed before it in the language of the minority.

They mostly live in the large cities and towns, such as Prague, Brno, Ostrava, Karlovy Vary, Kladno, Ústí nad Labem, Děčín, and Havířov.

[23] As an officially recognized minority the Bulgarian citizens of the Czech Republic enjoy the right to use their language in communication with authorities and in the courts of law.

However, this is in large part due to the absence of German-speaking youth, a heritage of the post-war policy of the Communist government.

[25] Many[citation needed] representatives of expellees' organizations support the erection of bilingual signs in all formerly German-speaking territory as a visible sign of the bilingual linguistic and cultural heritage of the region, but their efforts are not supported by some of the current inhabitants, as the vast majority of the current population is not of German descent.

The German-Czech Declaration of 21 January 1997 covered the two most critical issues—the role of some Sudeten Germans in the breakup of Czechoslovakia in 1938 and their expulsion after World War II.

[28] Today, there are about 7000 Greeks in the country (3219 according to 2001 census data),[28] mostly in the 3 biggest towns – Prague, Brno, Ostrava – and also in Bohumín, Havířov, Jeseník, Karviná, Krnov, Šumperk, Třinec, Vrbno pod Pradědem and Žamberk (apart from the last one these towns are in Silesia).

[29] PolesThe most concentrated linguistic minority in the Czech Republic are ethnic Poles, historically the plurality, today constituting about 10% of the population of Karviná and Frýdek-Místek districts.

Around 90% of the Roma that lived in the Czech Republic prior to World War II were exterminated by the Nazi Porajmos.

Romani is also absent from legislative, judiciary, and other political texts but it has recently entered some university and elementary school courses.

Life expectancy, literacy, median wage, school enrolment, and other socio-economic markers remain low while Roma compose the majority of prison and habitual offender populations despite accounting for only a fraction of a percent of Czech population.