19 February 2016

Czech population ages. The medium age reached 40.8 years in 2014, while it was only 36.2 years in 1995. Within the EU, the oldest population is in Germany, where the medium age was 45.6 years in 2014. Moreover, German population ages faster than Czech.

Number of persons with only primary education is also gradually decreasing in the CR. They comprise only 8.4% of the population. In Portugal, for example, the share is 61.6%, in Spain 48%, and in Italy 45.8%. “91.6% has at least secondary education in the CR, which is the most of the EU Member States. However, compared to other European countries, there is rather small share of population with higher education – only 19.9%, while in Luxembourg, for example, it is 43.1% of the population,” Iva Ritschelová, president of the Czech Statistical Office stated.

The CR also reports rather high rate of economic activity of the population, namely 73.5% of the population aged 15-64 years. A higher rate is recorded in Scandinavian countries, especially Sweden (81.5%) or the Netherlands (79%). It is mainly owing to the high rate of economic activity of females. On the contrary, the lowest rate of economic activity is reported by Italy (63.9%).

Unemployment rate in the Czech Republic belongs to the lowest in the EU. It was only 6.1% in 2014. As for the neighbouring countries, a low unemployment rate is also in Austria (5.6%) and Germany (5.0%, which is the lowest value in the EU). The highest unemployment rate in the EU is reported by Greece (26.5%) and Spain (24.5%).

As it further results from the publication Czech Republic in International Comparison, which has been recently published by the CZSO, carbon dioxide emissions are decreasing in the CR. According to Eurostat, in 2013 the emissions dropped to 9.6 tonnes per capita (from the value of 14.5 tonnes in 1990). The CR now ranks 36th as for CO₂ production in the world.

The comparison also shows that the CR has a good position in the area of municipal waste generation. In 2013, there were 307 kg of municipal waste per capita, while in Luxembourg it was 653 kg. The least waste was produced by Romania – only 272 kg per capita.

The link for the publication Czech Republic in International Comparison is here: https://www.czso.cz/csu/czso/czech-republic-in-international-comparison-2014. The publication offers comparisons of selected data on the Czech Republic with data on the Member States of the European Union and also other countries in the form of tables, graphs, and charts. There are 13 topics covering economic, social, and environmental areas of life. Besides standard information about the population, labour market, the environment, and individual sectors of the economy and macroeconomic data, also indicators on the information society, selected regional indicators, and others were included.

Contact:
Petra Báčová
CZSO spokeswoman
Mobile phone No.: (+420) 778 727 232
e-mail: petra.bacova@czso.cz