Territory in central Europe, ruled since 1993 by the Ceská Republika
The Czech Republic (Czech: Česká republika), known alternatively by its short-form name, Czechia (Czech: Česko), is a landlocked country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west, Austria to the south, Slovakia to the east and Poland to the northeast. The Czech Republic covers an area of 78,866 square kilometers with a mostly temperate continental climate and oceanic climate. It is a unitary parliamentary republic, with 10.6 million inhabitants; its capital and largest city is Prague, with 1.3 million residents. Other major cities are Brno, Ostrava and Pilsen. The Czech Republic is a member of the European Union (EU), NATO, the OECD, the United Nations, the OSCE and the Council of Europe.
Geographical type: Territory
Latitude: 49.75° N — Longitude: 15.5° E
Area: 78,866 km²
ISO 3166-2 code: CZ
Birthplace of
Eugen von Böhm-Bawerk, Eugen Böhm, in Brünn (Brno), on 12 Feb 1851
Miloš Forman, in Čáslav, on 18 Feb 1932
Joseph Schumpeter, Joseph Alois Schumpeter, in Triesch, on 8 Feb 1883
Home To
Measures of Freedom
Czechia: Country Profile, Freedom in the World, 2025Status: Free, Aggregate Score: 95/100, Political Rights: 37/40, Civil Liberties: 58/60
The Czech Republic is a parliamentary democracy in which political rights and civil liberties are generally respected. Illiberal rhetoric and the influence of powerful business entities in the political arena are visible. The country has recently made progress in the fight against government corruption.
Economic Freedom Summary Index, Economic Freedom of the World, 25 Sep 2025
2023 overall score: 7.61, rank: 29
2023 overall score: 7.61, rank: 29
Human Freedom Index [PDF], The Human Freedom Index 2023: A Global Measurement of Personal, Civil, and Economic Freedom
2021: 8.38, Rank: 20, Personal freedom: 8.78, Economic freedom: 7.81
2021: 8.38, Rank: 20, Personal freedom: 8.78, Economic freedom: 7.81
Articles
The Czech Miracle: Why Privatization went right in the Czech Republic, by Thomas Hazlett, Reason, Apr 1995
Examines the reforms made by the Czech Republic after the 1993 split from Czechoslovakia
Examines the reforms made by the Czech Republic after the 1993 split from Czechoslovakia
... a thriving marketplace is flashing its sparkle in the Czech Republic, a modern experiment in radical capitalist transformation. ... The Czech reforms were uniquely radical in transferring property from state ownership to private hands, and the society has responded with a flowering of initiative and entrepreneurship. And something more: civility.
Velvet Devolution: Is the "Czech Miracle" over? Or still to come? A report from Prague., by Thomas Hazlett, Reason, Mar 1998
Re-examines the Czech Republic reforms since 1995
Re-examines the Czech Republic reforms since 1995
Indeed, the main source of difficulty in the Czech Republic now is the policy gridlock that followed the exhaustion of mass privatization from 1991 to 1994 --just as Klaus and other advocates of 'fast privatization' had predicted. ... So the sky, while a bit darker these days, seems not to have fallen on the Czech Republic. True, growth has slowed, and real problems must be solved.
The introductory paragraph uses material from the Wikipedia article "Czech Republic" as of 23 Sep 2018, which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0.