Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic
Vietnamese people in the Czech Republic are the third-largest ethnic minority in the country and the largest Asian group. The community includes about 69,000 people in total, and more than 38,000 identified as Vietnamese in the 2021 census when counting those who listed Vietnamese as a second ethnicity.
Most Vietnamese live in Prague (about 16,000). The next largest communities are in Brno, Ostrava, and Plzeň (roughly 2,500–3,000 each). Cheb is an important center with about 3,300 people.
They speak Vietnamese and Czech. Religions among Vietnamese people include Vietnamese folk religion, Mahayana Buddhism, Roman Catholicism, and Protestantism.
History and economy: Vietnamese began arriving during the communist period, when Vietnam sent students and workers to Czechoslovakia for education and training. After 1989, many started their own small businesses, which remains a key part of the community, especially for first-generation migrants.
Rights: The Czech Republic protects minority rights, including funding to support language and culture. In 2004 officials said Vietnamese were not a national minority because they were not indigenous. In 2013, a Vietnamese representative joined the Government Council for National Minorities, a move seen as formal recognition. In Prague, Vietnamese had representation on the city’s National Minority Council even before that.
Names: Nguyen is a common Vietnamese surname; in 2011 it was the ninth most common surname in the Czech Republic, with about 21,000 people having it.
Population history: 1991 — 421; 2001 — 17,462; 2011 — 29,660; 2021 — 31,469 Vietnamese, plus 7,254 others with Vietnamese as a second ethnicity (38,723 total).
This page was last edited on 2 February 2026, at 16:03 (CET).