Profile
Background and figures as recorded in the CIA World Factbook.
At the close of World War I, the Czechs and Slovaks of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire merged to form Czechoslovakia, a parliamentarian democracy. During the interwar years, having rejected a federal system, the new country's predominantly Czech leaders were frequently preoccupied with meeting the increasingly strident demands of other ethnic minorities within the republic, most notably the Slovaks, the Sudeten Germans, and the Ruthenians (Ukrainians). On the eve of World War II, Nazi Germany occupied the territory that today comprises Czechia, and Slovakia became an independent state allied with Germany.
- Capital
- Prague
- Government
- parliamentary republic
- Population
- 10,838,703
- Area
- 78,867 sq km
- Location
- Central Europe, between Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria
- Climate
- temperate; cool summers; cold, cloudy, humid winters
- Natural resources
- hard coal; soft coal; kaolin; clay; graphite; timber…
- Languages
- Czech (official) 88.4%; Slovak 1.5%; other 2.6%; unspecified 7.2%
- Religions
- Roman Catholic 7%; other believers belonging to a church or religious society 6% (includes Evangelical United Brethren Church and Czechoslovak Hussite Church); believers unaffiliated with a religious society 9.1%; none 47.8%…
- Independence
- 1 January 1993 (Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia)
- Administrative divisions
- 13 regions (kraje, singular - kraj) and 1 capital city* (hlavni mesto);
- Currency
- koruny (CZK)
- Export partners
- Germany 29%; Slovakia 7%; Poland 6%; France 5%…
- Import partners
- Germany 22%; China 17%; Poland 8%; Slovakia 5%…
Source: CIA World Factbook — a work of the US government, in the public domain