The basics of demography were first taught in the academic year 1899/1900 at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University, within the Institute of Anthropology and Demography, founded by Jindřich Matiegka (1862–1943).
After the Faculty of Arts was divided, demography was transferred to the Faculty of Science, where František Jaroslav Netušil (1890–1927) became the first to habilitate as an associate professor of demography. The most significant contributor to the development of Czechoslovak demography was its de facto founder, Antonín Boháč (1882–1950), Vice-President of the State Statistical Office and associate professor of demography at the Faculty of Science, who elevated Czechoslovak demography to an international level. His publishing activity was thematically extensive, focusing especially on population issues in Czechoslovakia.
Other notable names include Jaromír Korčák, Václav Sekera, and František Fajfr.
An undoubtedly important figure in both Czech (or rather, Czechoslovak) and European demography is Zdeněk Pavlík (1931–2020), professor of demography, author and co-author of numerous specialized publications (notably the still-used textbook Basics of Demography), a long-time chairman of the Czech Demographic Society, and founder of the Department of Demography and Geodemography at the Faculty of Science, Charles University, in 1990 (for more information, including links to Professor Pavlík's profiles, click here).