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 APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7

1. Distribution and density

The distribution of Czechoslovakia's population is fairly even throughout the 10 administrative regions (kraje), with the heaviest concentration in central and northern Bohemia around Prague, the two kraje which occupy the former territory of Moravia, and western Slovakia around Bratislava. The least populous areas are southern and western Bohemia and predominantly mountainous central and eastern Slovakia.

As reported at midyear 1971, 42.3% of the total population lived in Bohemia, which comprises 41.3% of the national territory. Another 26.0% of the population lived in Moravia, which constitutes 20.4% of the land, and the remaining 31.7% lived in Slovakia, which makes up 38.3% of the total area (Figure 3).

With a population density of 292 persons per square mile at midyear 1971, Czechoslovakia ranked second in Eastern Europe to similarly industrialized East Germany. Like Eastern Europe in general, however, Czechoslovakia has a lower density than most nations of Western Europe. The highest densities outside the major cities occur along the East German border, in central Moravia, and in the Danube basin (see population inset to Summary Map in Country Profile chapter). No large area of Czechoslovakia can be called sparsely populated by U.S. standards, as only one kraj had fewer than 200 persons per square mile in 1971.

Throughout the years the population concentrations were centered in the more industrialized Czech Lands, but long-term trends indicate that a redistribution of population is taking place throughout the country, as noted in the following percentage distribution:

As indicated by Bohemia's declining share of the total national population, out-migration and a declining birth rate are major population trends in Czechoslovakia's industrial region. More significant, however, is the movement of rural people into urban areas, especially to the rapidly growing cities and towns of Slovakia and Moravia. Total internal migration numbered 392,711 persons in 1971, of which 42.9% occurred within the same okres (district). In 24.6% of the moves, the migration was from one okres to another in the same kraj, while 27% were from one kraj to another. Only 5.5% of the moves were between the Czech Lands and Slovakia.

Czechoslovakia is essentially a country of small cities and towns (Figure 4). With more than 62% of the 1970 population living in cities and towns of over 2,000 inhabitants, Czechoslovakia is the second most urbanized country in Eastern Europe, surpassed only by East Germany. The emphasis put on industrialization has resulted in a 37% increase in the urban population since 1946. The rate of urban growth, however, is well below that of most other Eastern European countries because, like East Germany, Czechoslovakia had a much higher proportion of urban population to begin with. As was true in most of Eastern Europe, the greatest increase in urban

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APPROVED FOR RELEASE: 2009/06/16: CIA-RDP01-00707R000200110015-7