Czechs still have a favorable attitude toward Slovaks and foreigners from developed countries
STEM has been monitoring the Czech public’s attitude toward foreigners and individual countries over the long term within its research series TRENDS. We assess the Czech public’s attitude toward foreigners by measuring people’s willingness to have selected nationalities or ethnic groups as neighbors. The results of the TRENDS research series from June 2025 show that Czechs have consistently had a very favorable attitude toward Slovaks (91% of respondents) and foreigners from developed countries, especially the English, Americans, French, and Germans (see the following charts). Czechs also expressed relatively strong sympathy for Croatians, with 73% of respondents having no problem accepting them as neighbors. On the other hand, nationalities that are geographically and culturally more distant usually rank at the bottom of the imaginary ladder. The majority of Czechs perceive living next to foreigners from these countries as problematic or even unacceptable. Fewer than a quarter of Czechs can imagine living next to an Arab, Afghan, Syrian, or Sudanese.
In the long term, there have been no major shifts at either the top or bottom of the Czech public’s preference ranking. Residents of Western countries and Slovakia have long been regarded by Czechs as acceptable neighbors, while foreigners from Arab countries or Africa remain among the least acceptable. Changes in attitudes, however, occur mainly in the middle of the imaginary ladder. In connection with the conflict in Ukraine, the Czech public’s acceptance of Russians as neighbors has declined, interrupting the upward trend observed in the previous decade. In June 2025, according to STEM’s research, only 31% of Czechs could imagine having a Russian as a neighbor, compared to as many as 50% in 2016. The acceptability of Russians has thus begun to fall back to the levels recorded in the 1990s, when only about one-fifth of Czechs had no problem accepting a Russian as a neighbor. In the first half of 2025, there was a further drop of 4 percentage points, since in January 2025, 35% of the Czech public still did not mind Russians as neighbors.
For Ukrainians, the opposite trend is evident. While at the turn of the millennium only one-tenth of Czechs would have accepted a Ukrainian as a neighbor without difficulty, in June 2025 their acceptability rose to 46%. Thus, in June 2025, Ukrainians surpassed Russians in neighbor acceptability by 15 percentage points.
„How would you feel, if your neighbour was (a/an):“
Source: STEM – Trends 2025/06 (N = 1 059)
From the perspective of developing mutual understanding, the clear winners in the Czech context continue to be the Vietnamese. Back in the 1990s, fewer than one in ten Czechs would have accepted a Vietnamese person as a neighbor. However, after 30 years of coexistence, the acceptability of Vietnamese among the Czech public has increased, reaching 73% in June 2025—comparable to the level observed mainly for foreigners from Western countries. From the perspective of most Czechs, the Vietnamese community thus ranks among the relatively well-adapted minorities, and its popularity continues to grow.
On the other hand, STEM’s research shows that the Czech public has long maintained negative attitudes toward the Roma. In June 2025, their acceptability as neighbors stood at 22%, roughly on par with the acceptability of foreigners from the Arab world.
„How would you feel, if your neighbour was (a/an): “
Share of respondents that chose „Very well, it would not bother me“, by the country of origin of the foreigner/neighbour
Source: STEM – Trends 1994-2025
„How would you feel, if your neighbour was (a/an): “
Share of respondents that chose „Very well, it would not bother me“, by the country of origin of the foreigner/neighbour
Source: STEM – Trends 2005-2025
The popularity of foreigners does not automatically translate into the popularity of their country
Since the mid-1990s, the STEM research institute has also been monitoring the attitudes of the Czech population toward selected countries in Europe and around the world. Respondents assess their attitudes toward individual states using school grades. Data from the latest survey, conducted in mid-April 2025, show that Czechs’ attitudes toward individual countries remain generally more or less stable. The most significant changes were in the cases of Slovakia and the United States (USA), which recorded a notable decline in the share of top ratings. The actions of the American administration since the beginning of 2025, under the leadership of re-elected Donald Trump, have not been particularly transparent and were generally met with concern. A similar situation applies to Slovakia, which in recent years has been drifting away from the Czech Republic both in terms of domestic political developments and foreign policy.
However, attitudes toward individual states are not always reflected in attitudes toward foreigners living in the Czech Republic. The results indicate that the Czech public is largely able to distinguish between these two aspects. Thus, both Americans and Slovaks remain among the most acceptable groups of foreigners that Czechs would like to have as neighbors in the country.
Attitudes of the Czech public towards foreigners and their countries of origin
„How would you feel, if your neighbour was (a/an): (nationality)“ – Share of respondents that chose „Very well, it would not bother me“
“In the following list, you will find the names of various countries. Using Czech school grades, please rate the extent to which you have a favorable or unfavorable attitude toward these countries. Grade one (1) indicates the most favorable attitude, grade five (5) the least favorable.” – share of responses 1+2.
Note.: Data is not available in the given time period regarding the: * attitude towards foreigners as neighbours,
** rating of countries, *** both time series.
Source: STEM – Trends 2005-2025
The cited research by the non-profit research institute STEM (www.stem.cz) was conducted on a representative sample of residents of the Czech Republic aged 18 and over between June 12–22, 2025. Respondents were selected using quota sampling. A total of 1,059 respondents answered the questions through a combination of online and face-to-face interviews (CAWI + CAPI). Data from earlier surveys of the TRENDS series, conducted using the same methodology on samples of more than 1,000 respondents, are also used. The TRENDS research series is funded solely from STEM’s own resources and is not dependent on any external client.
