Grund Fakten
General
Country name: conventional long form: Czech Republic local long form: Ceska Republika
Data code: CZ
Government type: parliamentary democracy
Capital: Prague
Statehood: 1 January 1993 (after the separation of Czechoslovakia into the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic)
Geography Location: Central Europe, southeast of Germany
Geographic coordinates: 49 45 N, 15 30 E
Continent: Europe
Area: total: 78,703 sq km/30,387 sq miles
Land boundaries: total: 1,881 km/1,168 miles- border countries: Austria 362 km/225 miles, Germany 646 km/401 miles, Poland 658 km/408 miles, Slovakia 215 km/134 miles
Climate: temperate; cooler summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters
Terrain: Bohemia in the west consists of rolling plains, hills, and plateaus surrounded by low mountains; Moravia in the east consists of very hilly country
Elevation extremes: lowest point: Elbe River 115 m/345 feet, highest point: Snezka 1,602 m/4,800 feet
Natural resources: hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite
Land use: arable land: 41%, permanent crops: 2%, permanent pastures: 11% , forests and woodland: 34% other: 12% (1993 est.)
Irrigated land: 240 sq km/93 sq miles (1993 est.)
Natural hazards: flooding
Environment—current issues: air and water pollution in areas of northwest Bohemia and in northern Moravia around Ostrava present health risks; acid rain damaging forests
Geography—note: landlocked; strategically located astride some of oldest and most significant land routes in Europe; Moravian Gate is a traditional military corridor between the North European Plain and the Danube in central Europe
People
Population: 10,280,513 (July 1999 est.)
Density: approximately 130 per square km/338 per square mile
Age structure: 0-14 years: 17% (male 888,292; female 845,662) 15-64 years: 69% (male 3,569,677; female 3,558,844) 65 years and over: 14% (male 545,305; female 872,733) (1999 est.)
Population growth rate: -0.01% (1999 est.)
Birth rate: 9.84 births/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Death rate: 10.86 deaths/1,000 population (1999 est.) Net migration rate: 0.91 migrant(s)/1,000 population (1999 est.)
Infant mortality rate: 6.67 deaths/1,000 live births (1999 est.)
Life expectancy at birth: total population: 74.35 years male: 71.01 years female: 77.88 years (1999 est.)
Total fertility rate: 1.28 children born/woman (1999 est.)
Nationality: noun: Czech(s) adjective: Czech note: 300,000 Slovaks declared themselves Czech citizens in 1994
Ethnic groups: Czech 94.4%, Slovak 3%, Polish 0.6%, German 0.5%, Gypsy/Roman 0.3%, Hungarian 0.2%, other 1%
Religions: atheist 39.8%, Roman Catholic 39.2%, Protestant 4.6%, Orthodox 3%, other 13.4%
Languages: Czech, Slovak
Legal system: civil law system based on Austro-Hungarian codes
Suffrage: 18 years of age; universal
Government
Executive branch:
chief of state: President Vaclav Klaus since 2003
cabinet: Cabinet appointed by the president on the recommendation of the prime minister
elections: president elected by Parliament for a five-year term; election last held March 2003; prime minister appointed by the president - Stanislav Gross (2004)
Legislative branch: bicameral Parliament or Parlament consists of the Senate or Senat
(81 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve staggered two-, four-, and six-year terms) and the Chamber of Deputies or Snemovna Poslancu (200 seats; members are elected by popular vote to serve four-year terms)
Judicial branch: Supreme Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president for life; Constitutional Court, chairman and deputy chairmen are appointed by the president for life
Flag description: two equal horizontal bands of white (top) and red with a blue isosceles triangle based on the hoist side (almost identical to the flag of the former Czechoslovakia) Czech Flag