Geography

The territory of the Czech Republic is 78.9 thousand square kilometers. The Czech landscape is very diverse. The western part (Bohemia) lies in the basins of the Laba (Elbe) and Vltava (Moldau) rivers, surrounded mainly by low mountains (the Sudetes and their part - the Krkonoše Mountains), where the highest point of the country is located - the mountain Sněžka, 1602 m high. Moravia, the eastern part It is also quite hilly and mainly lies in the basin of the Morava River (Markh). In Moravia, the source of the Odra River (Oder) is located.

Climate

If we do not take into account the temperature indicators of the mountainous parts of the country, the difference between the temperatures in the lowland lands will be 2 ° C. The coldest parts of the Czech Republic, without regard to their height, are in the whole northeast except for the outskirts of Ostrava. On the contrary, the southern Morava, the west of the Czech Republic (except for the Karlovy Vary Region) and the area around the Labe River are warmer. The warmest strip passes from Prague, through Plzen to Domažlice. But in reality, due to the different heights, the warmest part of the Czech Republic is the southern Morava and the coldest is the Sudetes and, surprisingly, Šumava, where the coldest nights are in the valleys. With increasing altitude, its temperature fluctuations decrease and the amount of precipitation increases. The average number of days with frost is from 90, in the warmest areas up to 180, in the coldest, high in the mountains, but more often it is 130 days with daily frost, it varies from 30 to 50, in the mountains to 70.

Population

The population of the Czech Republic is about 10.5 million people [1]. The population of the Czech Republic (95%) is made up of ethnic Czechs and speakers of the Czech language belonging to the group of Western Slavic languages. Foreigners make up about 4% of the population. Among immigrants, the most numerous diaspora in the Czech Republic are citizens of Ukraine, who as of August 31, 2011, lived in the country 110,733 (▼ 15,788 from August 2010). The Slovaks are in second place (for the year ▲ 8248, a total of 79,924), many of whom, after the separation in 1993, remained in the Czech Republic and make up approximately 2% of the population. On the third - citizens of Vietnam (only 56 716, ▼ 3889). They are followed by citizens of Russia (total 29,336, ▼ 1958) and Poland (18,942) [35] [36]. Other ethnic groups include Germans (13,577), Gypsies (according to some estimates, 250 thousand. [Source not specified 644 days])

Religion

According to the census conducted in 2011, 34.5% of Czech citizens do not belong to any religion or church [42]. In a survey conducted in 2005, 19% of respondents said they believe in God, 50% believe in some kind of natural or spiritual power, and 30% do not believe in any of this. The largest number of believers is Catholics (10.4% of the population), the next largest group is Protestants (0.8%) [42]. There are also supporters of the Czech Reformed Church separated from the Vatican in 1920. There are also Christian communities of other faiths, the largest of which is the Hussite Church, formed as an independent church after the break with the Roman Catholic Church in 1920. According to the 2011 census, there were 20,553 Orthodox in the Czech Republic [42]. The Orthodox Church of the Czech Lands and Slovakia is autocephalous,