The number of people in the Czech Republic at risk of income poverty has slightly decreased, but the figures are still concerning.
A year ago, 1.02 million people were at risk, and last year that number dropped slightly to 998,200. While the situation for elderly individuals living alone has improved, the outlook for families with children has worsened significantly. “The proportion of people living below the income poverty line decreased from 9.8% to 9.5% last year,” said Tanya Dvornakova from the Czech Statistical Office, which published the data.
People at risk of income poverty are those with less than 60% of the median or average net income. In the past year, this threshold was €741.30 for individuals and €1,111.40 for adult couples. For single parents with children under 13, the threshold was €967.30.
Sociologist Lucie Trlifajova from the Faculty of Social Sciences at Charles University believes that the middle class is becoming poorer, which means the poverty threshold isn’t rising as sharply. “The situation is stabilizing, and it’s not that the non-poor are becoming poorer,” she said.
However, Trlifajova also pointed out that various data sources indicate an increasing level of poverty among families with children. “You can see this in the use of food banks or the number of people dependent on social welfare, which has increased,” she said. Jan Klusacek, a sociologist and analyst at the Platform for Social Housing, believes the proportion of people living below the poverty line is much higher than the Czech Statistical Office reports. “It’s around 15%. That’s half a million more people,” he said.
According to Klusacek, the Statistical Office bases its calculations on net income. However, he argues that a more accurate measure would be the amount of income left after covering housing expenses. These costs, especially for families with young children, are rising and contributing significantly to the increase in poverty. Klusacek referred to an analysis conducted by the Platform and the Center for Social Issues — SPOT. This study revealed that the proportion of young families relying on the commercial rental market has sharply increased, particularly in large cities, where it has grown by a third over the past seven years.
In Prague, nearly half of families with children under ten years old do not own their own homes, with a similar trend seen in regional cities, where 39% of these families are renters.
