The Czech Republic offers to pay Ukrainian women for having children: the country’s reaction to the demographic decline

European countries are increasingly facing a decline in birth rates, an aging population, and a shortage of people to support social systems in the coming decades. In this situation, states are beginning to view foreigners as part of their own demographic future. Therefore, discussions about supporting families, children, and social benefits are increasingly going beyond citizenship and are rooted in the question: whom a country is ready to consider a full part of society. In the Czech Republic, attention is gradually shifting to the Ukrainian community, which after the start of the full-scale war became one of the largest in the Czech Republic.

As reported by Seznam Zprávy, in the Czech Republic, they advise introducing parental benefits after the birth of a child for Ukrainian citizens. These are women who currently do not receive such assistance from the state, even if they have lived in the country for years, work and pay taxes.

According to Seznam Zprávy, such a proposal is connected with the desire to weaken negative demographic trends. The Czech Republic is looking for ways to support the birth rate, and Ukrainian women have become one of the largest groups of foreign women in the country.

Analysts call the main problem the lack of state benefits for Ukrainians after the birth of a child. This applies even to those who have received a special long-term residence permit for a period of five years, officially work and pay taxes.

Migration expert Caritas Czech Republic Klara Boumová considers this situation unfair. According to her, Ukrainians are actively filling the system, but remain excluded from some of the benefits.

Czech sociologist Daniel Prokop calls access to parental benefits for Ukrainian women the simplest and fastest step to stimulate the birth rate. In his opinion, it would be most helpful if refugees from Ukraine received this support.

Analyst Daniel Goule also supports this position. He emphasizes that there are thousands of Ukrainian women in the Czech Republic in their prime reproductive age, so they should be motivated.

There are also caveats to this discussion. Researcher Hana Haskova reminds us that increasing payments usually only affects fertility for a short time.

Representative of the Ukrainian community Ilnara Dudas draws attention to a deeper problem – the lack of stability. According to her, a person needs to be given a sense of security first, and temporary protection, which is extended every year, does not provide this.

Her argument boils down to the fact that it is difficult to plan for a child if a person does not know whether they will be able to stay in the country tomorrow. For many Ukrainian families, the issue of payments is important, but no less important is the status that allows them to make long-term plans.

The Czech family support system provides for significant payments after the birth of a child. For one child, a family can receive 350 thousand Czech crowns, which is more than 740 thousand hryvnias. If the child was born before December 31, 2023, the amount of the benefit was smaller — 300 thousand crowns. In the case of a multiple pregnancy, the amount increases to 525 thousand crowns. For children born before the end of 2023, such a payment was 450 thousand crowns.

The benefit is not paid immediately in the entire amount, but in monthly installments. Parents of one child can receive up to 15 thousand crowns per month for three years. In the case of a multiple pregnancy, the monthly amount can reach 22.5 thousand crowns.

How many children do Ukrainian women give birth to in the Czech Republic

In 2025, Ukrainian women in the Czech Republic gave birth to 4,500 children. This is the largest indicator among all groups of foreigners, but it does not mean that the birth rate among Ukrainian women is high.

There are officially registered more than 155,000 Ukrainian women aged 18 to 65 who have temporary protection in the country. It is the size of this group that explains why the number of children born to Ukrainian women looks noticeable against the background of other foreign communities.

The Czech Statistical Office explains that the birth rate among Ukrainian women is significantly lower than among Czech women and other foreign women. They see the reason in the various circumstances of migration: most Ukrainian women came not for peaceful family planning, but because of the war, while other foreign women more often moved to the Czech Republic in search of work.

Even with the low birth rate among Ukrainian women, this indicator is important for the Czech Republic. On average, 24% of all children in the European Union are born to foreign women.

In Germany, the share of such children is 32.5%, in Austria — almost 36%. In the Czech Republic, this indicator is much lower — only 13%. If we take into account children with at least one foreign parent, the share increases to 17%.

These figures show that there is room for change in the Czech Republic, but the issue rests on a political decision. The state must determine whether it is ready to extend support to Ukrainian families who already live in the country and participate in its economic life.