Population Development and Population Policy in Czechoslovakia

Abstract

The development of population in Czechoslovakia and the countrys population policy should be of interest to demographers and sociologists of both the socialist and non-socialist countries. In the relatively short time of 20 to 30 years the population of Czechoslovakia passed through several different stages of political and social development. As an industrial state Czechoslovakia was affected by the economic crisis beginning in 1929 to a greater extent than were purely agricultural countries and her demographic development was accordingly affected. During the world economic crisis of 1929- 35 a clear tendency to depopulation could be observed in Czechoslovakia arising chiefly from the industrial and later the agricultural crisis. The economic situation at that time was further complicated by the political situation because prior to the Second World War about 30 per cent of the population of Czechoslovakia was of other than Czech or Slovak nationality. After World War II Czechoslovakia became one of the socialist countries. Gradually all branches of the economy were nationalized. Changes in the national economy were reflected in social relations in ideological cultural and other spheres and these influenced biological reproduction. The transfer of the German minority led to a rejuvenation of the population of Czechoslovakia because the transferred population was on the average older than the population of Czech and Slovak nationality. This was of significance particularly for the western regions to which very young people moved from the interior and the eastern regions. These political social national and partly biological changes had a great influence on the characteristics of population development whose basic features are the subject of the following study. (excerpt)