The largest city in the Czech Republic is Prague, with around 1.3 million residents, followed by Brno (0.38 million), Ostrava (0.29 million), Plzeň (0.17 million), Liberec (0.10 million), Olomouc (0.10 million), České Budějovice (0.09 million), Hradec Králové (0.09 million), Ústí nad Labem (0.09 million) and Pardubice (0.09 million). Together these ten cities anchor a nation of roughly 10.7 million people spread across Bohemia, Moravia and Czech Silesia.
The Czech urban network is unusually top-heavy. Prague alone holds more than three times the population of Brno, the second-largest city, and the gap widens sharply after the top three. Below is a closer look at what defines each of these cities and the regions they serve.
The Ten Largest Czech Cities
- Prague (Praha) — about 1.3 million; the capital and the political, financial and cultural core of the country.
- Brno — about 380,000; the Moravian capital and home to the Constitutional Court and major universities.
- Ostrava — about 290,000; the industrial heart of the northeast, near the Polish border.
- Plzeň (Pilsen) — about 170,000; world-famous for Pilsner Urquell, the original pale lager.
- Liberec — about 100,000; a textile and tourism hub beneath the Jizera Mountains.
- Olomouc — about 100,000; an ancient ecclesiastical and university city in central Moravia.
- České Budějovice — about 95,000; the South Bohemian capital and home of Budweiser Budvar.
- Hradec Králové — about 92,000; admired for its early 20th-century modernist architecture.
- Ústí nad Labem — about 91,000; a chemical-industry and river-port city on the Elbe.
- Pardubice — about 90,000; known for gingerbread, the Velká Pardubická steeplechase and engineering.
Prague: A Capital That Dominates
Prague is in a class of its own. Straddling the Vltava River, it functions simultaneously as the national capital, the largest economic centre and one of Europe's most visited tourist destinations, drawing millions of visitors each year to landmarks like Prague Castle, Charles Bridge and the Old Town Square astronomical clock. Prague Castle is often cited as the largest ancient castle complex in the world. The city generates a disproportionate share of national GDP and continues to grow as people move in for work, study and its dense transit network of metro, trams and rail.
Brno and Ostrava: The Regional Counterweights
After Prague, Brno and Ostrava act as the main regional poles. Brno, capital of the historic region of Moravia, is the Czech Republic's judicial centre, hosting the Constitutional Court, the Supreme Court and the Supreme Administrative Court. It is also a fast-growing technology and research hub anchored by Masaryk University and Brno University of Technology, and it hosts a Formula-style motorcycle Grand Prix circuit. Ostrava, near the borders with Poland and Slovakia, grew on coal mining and steel. Although heavy industry has shrunk, the city has reinvented its old Vítkovice ironworks into a cultural and concert venue, hosting the Colours of Ostrava music festival.
Mid-Sized Cities and What They Are Known For
The cities ranked fourth through tenth are smaller but distinct. Plzeň gave the world the Pilsner brewing method in 1842, and beer tourism remains central to its identity. Olomouc preserves a beautifully intact historic core and the UNESCO-listed Holy Trinity Column, while its Palacký University is one of the oldest in the country. České Budějovice lends its German name, Budweis, to the original Budweiser beer. Liberec sits below the Ještěd mountain with its iconic hyperboloid tower and transmitter. Hradec Králové and Pardubice form a twin-city area in eastern Bohemia, and Ústí nad Labem guards a strategic crossing of the Elbe (Labe) on the route toward Germany.
Urban Geography and Population Trends
About three-quarters of Czechs live in urban areas, yet the country has very few truly large cities. Only Prague exceeds one million, and just one other city, Brno, tops a quarter of a million. This pattern reflects a settlement structure built around many small and medium towns rather than a handful of giant metropolises. National population has hovered near 10.7 million, with modest growth in recent years driven largely by Prague and the suburbs that ring it. If you enjoy testing your knowledge of European capitals and cities, try our interactive geography games.
For broader context on the nation's geography, economy and history, see our czech republic country guide.
Prague Survived the War Almost Intact
Prague came through the Second World War with far less damage than almost any other central European capital. It was occupied rather than fought over for most of the conflict, and it escaped the systematic bombing that flattened Warsaw, Dresden and Budapest.
The result is a continuous architectural record from Romanesque through Gothic, Renaissance, baroque, art nouveau and cubist, all in one city centre. Prague Castle is by area the largest ancient castle complex in the world, and the historic centre is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The one substantial wartime bombing was an American raid in February 1945 that hit the city by mistake; the crews believed they were over Dresden, about 120 kilometres away.
The Country Is Really Two Historic Lands
The Czech Republic is made up of Bohemia in the west, with Prague and Plzen, and Moravia in the east, with Brno, Olomouc and Ostrava, plus a fragment of Silesia in the north-east.
Moravians have their own dialects, wine rather than beer traditions in the south, and a distinct regional identity that shows up in census returns when people are allowed to declare it. Brno, the Moravian capital, holds the country's constitutional and supreme courts, deliberately separated from the political capital.
Ostrava, in the north-east, was the coal and steel city, part of a black country straddling the Polish border. Its Vitkovice ironworks, shut down in 1998, has been converted into a cultural complex and is an EU industrial heritage site.
Beer Is a Municipal Institution
The Czechs drink more beer per head than any other nation and have done for three decades running. Plzen gave the world pilsner: in 1842 the city's brewers, dissatisfied with inconsistent quality, hired a Bavarian brewer who produced the first pale lager, and the style now accounts for the majority of beer made worldwide.
Ceske Budejovice, further south, is Budweis, whose brewing tradition gave rise to a trademark dispute with the American Budweiser that has run in various courts for well over a century.
Beer in Czech pubs is frequently cheaper than bottled water, and the Czech pub is sufficiently central to social life that UNESCO recognised the country's beer culture on its national heritage lists.
The Velvet Divorce Split the Country Peacefully
Czechoslovakia dissolved on 1 January 1993 into the Czech Republic and Slovakia, agreed by the two governments without a referendum and without violence. It is among the very few peaceful separations of a modern state.
The split removed Bratislava and the Slovak cities from what had been a shared urban system, and it left the Czech lands more uniformly industrial and more urbanised than Slovakia.
The country adopted Czechia as its short-form name in 2016, a change that has been taken up unevenly in English but which appears on UN and EU documents.
The Spa Towns and the Bohemian Borderlands
Karlovy Vary, Marianske Lazne and Frantiskovy Lazne form a triangle of spa towns in western Bohemia that were among the great European resorts, drawing Goethe, Beethoven, Chopin and a long procession of Habsburg nobility. They were inscribed by UNESCO in 2021 as part of the Great Spa Towns of Europe.
The Sudetenland surrounding them was predominantly German-speaking until 1945, when around three million Germans were expelled. Whole towns in the border regions lost their populations and were resettled or abandoned, and some villages were demolished entirely.
That depopulation is why the Czech border regions remain thinner than the interior, and why several towns that appear on prewar maps of substantial size do not appear on this list at all.
Common Questions About Czech Cities
What is the largest city in the Czech Republic?
Prague is by far the largest city, with roughly 1.3 million residents. It is the capital and the dominant economic, cultural and political centre of the country.
How many cities in the Czech Republic have over 100,000 people?
Only a handful: Prague, Brno, Ostrava and Plzeň clearly exceed 100,000, with Liberec and Olomouc sitting right around the 100,000 mark. The remaining major cities fall just below that threshold.
What is the second-largest city in the Czech Republic?
Brno, with about 380,000 people, is the second-largest city. It serves as the historic capital of Moravia and the country's judicial centre.
Is Prague much bigger than other Czech cities?
Yes. Prague has more than three times the population of Brno and roughly four times that of Ostrava, making the Czech Republic one of the more capital-dominated countries in Central Europe.
Is it Czechia or the Czech Republic?
Both are correct. Czechia was adopted as the official short-form name in 2016, with the Czech Republic remaining the formal one. English usage is still split, though Czechia has gained ground in international documents and sport.
Why is Prague so much larger than other Czech cities?
It has been the political and economic centre since the fourteenth century, when Charles IV made it the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, and it absorbed most of the country's growth after 1989. Brno, the second city, is under a third of its size.