Map of Czechia
Czechia is a country in Europe with its capital at Prague, home to about 10.89 million people across 78,871 km². The interactive map below plots 12 cities and towns, 4 rivers and 1 mountain summits recorded for Czechia in YearMaps.
- Population
- 10.89 million
- Area
- 78,871 km²
- Capital
- Prague
- Continent
- Europe
Interactive Map of Czechia
Centred on Prague at 50.0853° N, 14.4640° E. Use the layer panel to switch on rivers, dams, ports, peaks and historical borders.
About Czechia
The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The Czech Republic has a hilly landscape that covers an area of 78,871 square kilometers (30,452 sq mi) with a mostly temperate continental and oceanic climate. The capital and largest city is Prague; other major cities and urban areas include Brno, Ostrava, Plzeň and Liberec.
The Duchy of Bohemia was founded in the 9th century under Great Moravia. It was formally recognized as an Imperial Estate of the Holy Roman Empire in 1002 and became a kingdom in 1198. Following the Battle of Mohács in 1526, all the Lands of the Bohemian Crown were gradually integrated into the Habsburg monarchy. Nearly a hundred years later, the Protestant Bohemian Revolt led to the Thirty Years' War. After the Battle of White Mountain, the Habsburgs consolidated their rule. With the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire in 1806, the Crown lands became part of the Austrian Empire.
During the 19th century, the Czech lands underwent significant industrialization. Following the collapse of Austria-Hungary after World War I, most of the region became part of the First Czechoslovak Republic in 1918. Czechoslovakia was the only country in Central and Eastern Europe to remain a parliamentary democracy during the entirety of the interwar period. After the Munich Agreement in 1938, Nazi Germany systematically took control over the Czech lands. Czechoslovakia was restored in 1945 as the Third Czechoslovak Republic and three years later became an Eastern Bloc communist state following a coup d'état in 1948. Attempts to liberalize the government and economy were suppressed by a Soviet-led invasion of the country during the Prague Spring in 1968. In November 1989, the Velvet Revolution ended communist rule in the country and restored democracy. On 31 December 1992, Czechoslovakia was peacefully dissolved, with its constituent states becoming the independent states of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
The Czech Republic is a unitary parliamentary republic and developed country with an advanced, high-income social market economy. It is a welfare state with a European social model, universal health care and free-tuition university education. It ranks 32nd in the Human Development Index. The Czech Republic is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the European Union, the OECD, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the Visegrád Group.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia: Czech Republic (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Geography and Climate of Czechia
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. After the war, a reunited but truncated Czechoslovakia (less Ruthenia) fell within the Soviet sphere of influence when the pro-Soviet Communist party staged a coup in February 1948. In 1968, an invasion by fellow Warsaw Pact troops ended the efforts of the country's leaders to liberalize communist rule and create "socialism with a human face," ushering in a period of repression known as "normalization." The peaceful "Velvet Revolution" swept the Communist Party from power at the end of 1989 and inaugurated a return to democratic rule and a market economy. On 1 January 1993, the country underwent a nonviolent "velvet divorce" into its two national components, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004. The country formally added the short-form name Czechia in 2016, while also continuing to use the full form name, the Czech Republic.
- Location
- Central Europe, between Germany, Poland, Slovakia, and Austria.
- Climate
- Temperate; cool 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.
- Highest point
- Snezka 1,602 m.
- Lowest point
- Labe (Elbe) River 115 m.
- Coastline
- 0 km (landlocked)
- Land borders
- Total: 2,046 km; border countries: Austria 402 km; Germany 704 km; Poland 699 km; Slovakia 241 km.
- Major rivers
- Labe (Elbe) river source (shared with Germany [m]) - 1,252 km note: [s] after country name indicates river source; [m] after country name indicates river mouth.
- Natural resources
- Hard coal, soft coal, kaolin, clay, graphite, timber, arable land.
- Land use
- Agricultural land: 45.8% (2023 est.); arable land: 32.7% (2023 est.); permanent crops: 0.5% (2023 est.); permanent pasture: 12.5% (2023 est.); forest: 38.2% (2023 est.); other: 16% (2023 est.)
- Natural hazards
- Flooding.
- Geographic note
- Note 1: landlocked; strategically located on 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 note 2: the Hranice Abyss in Czechia is the world's deepest surveyed freshwater cave at 519 m (1,703 ft); its survey is not complete, and it may be up to 800-1,200 m (2,625-3,937 ft) deep.
- Languages
- Czech (official) 88.4%, Slovak 1.5%, other 2.6%, unspecified 7.2% (2021 est.)
- 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%, unspecified 30.1% (2021 est.)
- Ethnic groups
- Czech 57.3%, Moravian 3.4%, other 7.7%, unspecified 31.6% (2021 est.)
- Economy
- High-income, diversified EU economy; manufacturing-oriented exporter led by automotive industry; moderate growth driven by household consumption and investments, despite negative contribution from net exports; tight labor market with low unemployment; gained energy independence from Russian oil in April 2025.
From the CIA World Factbook (public domain), archived edition of 2026-01-22. The Factbook is no longer updated, so figures reflect that edition.
Czechia in Numbers
- Population
- 10.89 million
- GDP
- US$391.0 billion
- GDP per person
- US$35,917
- Life expectancy
- 80.0 years
- Population growth
- -0.17% a year
- Population density
- 141 per km²
- Urban population
- 72.9%
- Surface area
- 78,871 km²
- Forest cover
- 38.4%
- Arable land
- 32.7%
- Access to electricity
- 100.0%
- Internet users
- 87.7%
Indicators from World Bank Open Data (CC BY 4.0). The year under each figure is its reference year.
Czechia in Depth
History
Archaeological evidence indicates that the area now known as the Czech Republic has been inhabited since the Paleolithic era. Notably, the Venus of Dolní Věstonice, a ceramic figurine dated to approximately 29,000–25,000 BC, was discovered in this region. This artifact is considered the oldest known ceramic figurine in the world.
In the classical era, as a result of the 3rd century BC Celtic migrations, Bohemia became associated with the Boii. The Boii founded an oppidum near the site of modern Prague. In the 1st century AD, the Germanic tribes of the Marcomanni and Quadi settled there.
Geography
The Czech Republic lies mostly between latitudes 48° and 51° N and longitudes 12° and 19° E. Bohemia, to the west, consists of a basin drained by the Elbe (Czech: Labe) and the Vltava rivers, surrounded by mostly low mountains, such as the Giant Mountains range (Czech: Krkonoše) of the Sudetes. The highest point in the country, Sněžka at 1,603 m (5,259 ft), is located here. Moravia in the east is hilly. It is drained mainly by the Morava River, but it also contains the source of the Oder River (Czech: Odra). The three historical lands correspond with the river basins of the Elbe and the Vltava for Bohemia; the Morava for Moravia; and the Oder river basin for Czech Silesia.
Water from the Czech Republic flows to three different seas: the North Sea, Baltic Sea, and Black Sea.
Economy
The Czech Republic has a developed, high-income export-oriented social market economy based in services, manufacturing and innovation, that maintains a welfare state and the European social model. The Czech Republic participates in the European Single Market as a member of the European Union and is therefore a part of the economy of the European Union but uses its own currency, the Czech koruna, instead of the euro. It has a per capita GDP rate that is 91% of the EU average and is a member of the OECD. Monetary policy is conducted by the Czech National Bank, whose independence is guaranteed by the constitution. The Czech Republic ranks 12th in the UN inequality-adjusted human development and 24th in World Bank Human Capital Index.
Demographics
The total fertility rate in 2020 was estimated at 1.71 children per woman, which is below the replacement rate of 2.1. The population has an average age of 43.3 years. The life expectancy in 2021 was estimated to be 79.5 years (76.55 years male, 82.61 years female). In 2024, there were 121,823 immigrants to and 84,978 emigrants from the Czech Republic, for a net migration of 36,845, of whom 17 thousand were Ukrainian and 4.7 thousand were Slovak. Vietnamese immigrants began settling in the country during the Communist period, when they were invited as guest workers by the Czechoslovak government. In 2009, there were about 70,000 Vietnamese in the Czech Republic.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Czech Republic (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Czechia: Key Facts
| Currency | Czech koruna |
|---|---|
| Official language | Czech |
| Head of state | Petr Pavel |
| Head of government | Andrej Babiš |
| Form of government | parliamentary republic |
| Calling code | +420 |
| Internet domain | .cz |
| Highest point | Sněžka |
| Lowest point | Elbe |
| Established | 1 January 1993 |
Facts from Wikidata Q213 (CC0).
History of Czechia: Empires and States
The atlas records 21 polities whose mapped territory included part of Czechia, from Samo's Empire in 623 CE to 2024 CE. They are listed in the order they first appear.
| Polity | Period here | Extent |
|---|---|---|
| Samo's Empire | 623–660 CE | Nearly all |
| Great Moravia | 814–910 CE | Nearly all |
| Duchy of Bohemia | 896–1002 CE | Nearly all |
| Kingdom of Poland | 1003–1027 CE | Nearly all |
| The Holy Roman Empire | 1010–1621 CE | Nearly all |
| Vassalage of Kingdom of Bohemia to Holy Roman Empire | 1202–1452 CE | Nearly all |
| Kingdom of Bohemia | 1202–1528 CE | Nearly all |
| Margraviate of Moravia | 1385–1414 CE | A large part |
| Vassalage of Electorate of Brandenburg to Holy Roman Empire | 1422–1458 CE | Nearly all |
| House of Habsburg | 1453–1458 CE | Nearly all |
| Kingdom of Hungary | 1475–1491 CE | A large part |
| Kingdom of Spain | 1529–1555 CE | Nearly all |
| The Spanish Empire | 1529–1555 CE | Nearly all |
| Habsburg Monarchy | 1556–1805 CE | Nearly all |
| Kingdom of Prussia | 1744–1761 CE | A large part |
| Austrian Empire | 1806–1867 CE | Nearly all |
| Austria-Hungary | 1868–1918 CE | Nearly all |
| Czechoslovakia | 1919–1991 CE | Nearly all |
| Nazi Germany | 1938–1944 CE | Nearly all |
| Union of Soviet Socialist Republics | 1945–1990 CE | Nearly all |
| Czech Republic | 1992–2024 CE | Nearly all |
Historical Maps of Czechia
Czechia on the world map in each year one of these states held it:
Derived by testing mapped cities against dated territorial polygons. Dates are when the polygons cover this place, not the polity's whole lifespan, and polities absent from the source dataset are not listed.
Visiting Czechia
The Czech Republic (Czech: Česká republika), or Czechia (Česko) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is not a large country but has a rich and eventful history, including incidents and people like Saint Wenceslas, Jan Hus, the Thirty-years War, Operation Anthropoid and the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Czechs, Germans, Slovaks, Italian stonemasons and stucco workers, French tradesmen, and deserters from Napoleon's army have lived and worked here, all influencing one another. For centuries they jointly cultivated their land, creating works that grace this small country with hundreds of ancient castles, monasteries and stately mansions, and entire towns that give the impression of being comprehensive artefacts. The Czech Republic contains a vast number of architectural treasures and has beautiful forests and mountains to match.
Travel notes adapted from Wikivoyage: Czech Republic (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Largest Cities in Czechia
12 cities recorded. Ranked by metropolitan population. A port city's harbour is written up on the page of its sea.
| # | Name | Population | Region | Role |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Prague | 1.16 million | Prague | National capital |
| 2 | Ostrava | 478,963 | Moravskoslezský | Admin-1 capital |
| 3 | Brno | 388,277 | Kraj Vysocina | Admin-1 capital |
| 4 | Pizen | 164,180 | Karlovarský | Admin-1 capital |
| 5 | Zlín | 124,610 | Kraj Vysocina | Populated place |
| 6 | Pardubice | 107,064 | Královéhradecký | Populated place |
| 7 | Liberec | 102,175 | Liberecký | Populated place |
| 8 | Olomouc | 101,268 | Moravskoslezský | Populated place |
| 9 | České Budějovice | 98,851 | Jihoceský | Admin-1 capital |
| 10 | Hradec Králové | 95,195 | Královéhradecký | Admin-1 capital |
| 11 | Usti Nad Labem | 94,105 | Liberecký | Admin-1 capital |
| 12 | Jihlava | 53,921 | Kraj Vysocina | Populated place |
Highest Mountains in Czechia
1 mountain recorded. Ranked by summit elevation above sea level. A summit on a border is listed under both countries.
| # | Name | Elevation | Feet | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sněžka | 1,603 m | 5,259 ft | Europe |
Sněžka
Mountain · 1,603 m
Sněžka is a mountain rising to 1,603 metres (5,259 ft) in Czechia and Poland, in the Europe region. The summit stands on the border between them. From PeakBagger.com, with kind permission..
Sněžka (Czech pronunciation: [ˈsɲɛʃka] ) or Śnieżka (Polish pronunciation: [ˈɕɲɛʂka]; German: Schneekoppe) is a mountain on the border between the Czech Republic and Poland, the most prominent point of the Silesian Ridge in the Giant Mountains. At 1,603.3 metres (5,260 ft), its summit is the highest point in the Czech Republic, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in the Giant Mountains and in the entire Sudetes.
Adapted from Wikipedia: Sněžka (CC BY-SA 4.0).
- Elevation
- 1,603 m (5,259 ft)
- Global rank
- #482 of 641 indexed
- Region
- Europe (#53)
- Countries
- Czechia, Poland
- Coordinates
- 50.7400°, 15.7100°
Of the 641 named summits indexed in YearMaps, Sněžka ranks #482 by elevation, below Mount Katahdin (1,606 m) and above Volna (1,585 m).
- Ranges:
- Erzgebirge (Europe), Böhmerwald (Europe)
- Settlements below:
- Liberec (45 km), Hradec Králové (60 km), Pardubice (78 km)
More about Sněžka
History
Sněžka was one of the first European mountains visited by many tourists. This was mainly due to the relatively minor technical difficulties of the ascent and the fact that since the sixteenth century, many resort visitors flocked to the nearby Bad Warmbrunn (today: Cieplice Śląskie-Zdrój) and the highly visible Sněžka, visually dominant over all Giant Mountains was for them an important attraction.
The first historical account of an ascent to the peak is in 1456, by an unknown Venetian merchant searching for precious stones. The first settlements on the mountain soon appeared, being primarily mining communities, tapping into its deposits of copper, iron and arsenic. The mining shafts, totalling 1.5 kilometres (0.93 mi) in length, remain to this day.
Climate
Due to high altitude the climate is maritime polar (Köppen: ET) not far from a continental subpolar climate (Dfc). The difference should be at least 6 °C lower on annual average compared to the weather station in the plains.
Sections adapted from Wikipedia: Sněžka (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Sněžka: Key Facts
| Topographic prominence | 1,197 m |
|---|---|
| Mountain range | Giant Mountains |
Facts from Wikidata Q617511 (CC0).
Rivers in Czechia
4 rivers recorded. Listed alphabetically. A river is listed where its mapped reach lies, so long rivers appear under more than one country.
UNESCO World Heritage Sites in Czechia
16 World Heritage Sites recorded. Listed by year of inscription, earliest first. Sites shared with another country appear under each.
| # | Name | Inscribed | Type | Criteria |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Historic Centre of Český Krumlov | 1992 | Cultural | (iv) |
| 2 | Historic Centre of Prague | 1992 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) (vi) |
| 3 | Historic Centre of Telč | 1992 | Cultural | (i) (iv) |
| 4 | Pilgrimage Church of Saint John of Nepomuk | 1994 | Cultural | (iv) |
| 5 | Kutná Hora: Historical Town Centre with the Church of St Barbara and the Cathedral of Our Lady at Sedlec | 1995 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
| 6 | Lednice-Valtice Cultural Landscape | 1996 | Cultural | (i) (ii) (iv) |
| 7 | Gardens and Castle at Kroměříž | 1998 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
| 8 | Holašovice | 1998 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
| 9 | Litomyšl Chateau | 1999 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
| 10 | Villa Tugendhat | 2001 | Cultural | (ii) (iv) |
Mountain Ranges, Deserts and Landforms of Czechia
5 mountain ranges, deserts and other landforms recorded. Ranked by mapped area. Covers mountain ranges, deserts, plateaus, named glaciers, plains, basins, peninsulas and capes. One that crosses a border is listed under every country it lies in, with the area of the whole feature.
| # | Name | Area | Type | Region |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Europe | 11.24M km² | Continent | Europe |
| 2 | Carpathian Mountains | 220,248 km² | Range/mtn | Europe |
| 3 | Sudetes Mountains | 12,345 km² | Range/mtn | Europe |
| 4 | Böhmerwald | 9,820 km² | Range/mtn | Europe |
| 5 | Erzgebirge | 6,086 km² | Range/mtn | Europe |
Countries Bordering Czechia
Land and maritime neighbours.
More Maps in Europe
Czechia: Quick Answers
- What is the capital of Czechia?
- The capital of Czechia is Prague.
- What is the population of Czechia?
- Czechia has a population of about 10.89 million, the #89 largest of 225 countries in YearMaps. Source: World Bank, 2025.
- How big is Czechia?
- Czechia covers 78,871 km², ranking #119 by area, with about 138 people per square kilometre.
- Which continent is Czechia in?
- Czechia is in Europe.
- Which countries border Czechia?
- Czechia shares a land or maritime border with Poland, Austria, Germany, Slovakia.
- What is the largest city in Czechia?
- Prague is the largest city in Czechia, with a metropolitan population of about 1.16 million.
- What is the highest mountain in Czechia?
- The highest summit recorded for Czechia in YearMaps is Sněžka at 1,603 m (5,259 ft). Summits on a border are counted for both countries.