Kraj

Not to be confused with Krai.

For the radio station in Johannesburg, California, see KRAJ.

A kraj (plural: kraje) is the highest-level administrative unit in the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic. For lack of other English expressions, the Slavic term is often translated as "province", "region", or "territory", although it approximately means "(part of) country", or "(part of) countryside". A kraj is subdivided into okresy ("counties").

The first kraje were created in the Kingdom of Bohemia during the reign of Charles IV in the 14th century and they lasted till 1862/68. Kraje were reintroduced in 1949 in Czechoslovakia and still exist today (except for the early 1990s) in its successor states despite many rearrangements.

In Russia nine of the 85 federal subjects are called krais (края, kraya), coequal to oblasts. The toponym Krajina refers to several historical regions in Slavic countries.

Kraje in the Czech Republic

Main article: Regions of the Czech Republic

	Region	Czech Name (kraj)	Capital	Population (2011 census)	Area (km²)	Population density (/km²)	GDP (in million CZK)	GDP per capita
A	Prague	Hlavní město Praha	Prague	1,272,690	496.10	2,360	637,704	547,096
S	Central Bohemian	Středočeský	Prague	1,274,633	11,014.97	104	288,888	253,912
C	South Bohemian	Jihočeský	České Budějovice (Budweis)	637,460	10,056.79	62	150,970	251,106
J	Vysočina	Vysočina	Jihlava	512,727	6,795.56	75	121,318	234,530
P	Plzeň	Plzeňský	Plzeň (de:Pilsen)	574,694	7,560.93	73	137,911	216,639
K	Karlovy Vary	Karlovarský	Karlovy Vary (Karlsbad)	310,245	3,314.46	92	65,789	216,639
U	Ústí nad Labem	Ústecký	Ústí nad Labem	830,371	5,334.52	154	188,041	229,146
L	Liberec	Liberecký	Liberec	439,262	3,162.93	135	94,451	229,146
H	Hradec Králové	Královéhradecký	Hradec Králové	555,683	4,758.54	115	133,767	244,549
E	Pardubice	Pardubický	Pardubice	505,285	4,519	112	116,639	230,880
M	Olomouc	Olomoucký	Olomouc	639,946	5,266.57	123	134,376	211,467
T	Moravian-Silesian	Moravskoslezský	Ostrava	1,236,028	5,426.83	227	280,210	222,638
B	South Moravian	Jihomoravský	Brno	1,169,788	7,194.56	159	285,855	254,684
Z	Zlín	Zlínský	Zlín	590,459	3,963.55	149	131,789	222,885
CZ	Czech Republic		Prague	10,562,214	78,864.92	130	2,767,717	271,161

Note: The letter in the first column is used as a 2nd character on Czech (civilian) license plates.

Symbols of Czech regions

• 
  Prague
• 
  Central Bohemian
• 
  South Bohemian
• 
  Plzeň
• 
  Karlovy Vary
• 
  Ústí nad Labem
• 
  Liberec
• 
  Hradec Králové
• 
  Pardubice
• 
  Vysočina
• 
  South Moravian
• 
  Olomouc
• 
  Zlín
• 
  Moravian-Silesian
• 
  Location of Czech regions in the map

See also

• Bohemia#Traditional administrative divisions
• Regions of the Czech Republic
• Regions of Slovakia
• Federal subjects of Russia
• Krajina
• Semasiological map for *krajь

External links

• (in Russian) etymology of the word