About indices

Quality of life is measured by indices that have an impact on satisfied and happy human life.

Quality of life is measured by indices that have an impact on satisfied and happy human life. Based on many studies, research and focus groups, we divided these indices into three main areas:

Health and environment

Work, education and standard of living

Community and services

For happy and satisfied life, it is necessary to have these areas in balance with each other. An imbalance in one of them could have an impact on our overall satisfaction with life.

Even though the municipality where we live can not provide us a happy, carefree and rich life, it can try to set the conditions that will help us to meet all these needs.

When constructing an overall quality of life score, we carefully selected indicators that objectively capture the situation in the municipality and have a corresponding value.

Index of practitioners

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of practitioner's offices in the territory of the municipality related to population.
  • Number of practitioner's offices within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall.

The number of practitioner's offices is based on data recorded in the National Register of Health Service Providers for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 2.9 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards lower values. Only 20% of municipalities reached values above 5.1. This indicates big difference in availability of practitioners in the few municipalities with the highest values and in the rest of the republic.

Index of pediatricians

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of pediatrician's offices in the territory of the municipality related to population. 
  • Number of pediatrician's offices within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall. 
The number o pediatrician's offices is based on data recorded in the National Register of Health Service Providers for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 2.9 %

The distribution of the results is relatively regular with the concentration at the center, because the 20% of municipalities with the lowest availability of pediatricians reached values in a similar range (0 - 3.3) to the 20% of municipalities with the highest values (values between 6.0 - 10). The availability of pediatricians varies from one municipality to another, but in most municipalities the differences are not so significant.

Index of driving time to a hospital

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The indicator represents the time required to drive to the nearest hospital from the municipality's town hall.

Information about hospitals is based on data recorded in the National Register of Health Service Providers for the third quarter of 2022.

Calculation considers speed limits on roads. Actual traffic situations and closures are not considered in the calculation.

Index weight: 2.3 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular. The resulting index of almost half of municipalities is higher than 9. This is due to the fact that in most of the municipalities at least one hospital is located directly in their territory. So the driving time to the nearest hospital is very similar. Lower values are achieved by municipalities that do not have a hospital and whose residents have to go to the hospital in one of the adjacent municipalities.

Index of pharmacies

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of pharmacies in the territory of the municipality related to population. 
  • Number of pharmacies within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall. 

The number of pharmacies is based on data recorded in the State Institute for Drug Control for the half of 2022.

Index weight: 3.5 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards lower values. Only 25% of municipalities reached values above 5.1. This indicates a big difference in the availability of pharmacies in the few municipalities with the highest results compared to the rest of the republic.

Index of life expectancy

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Life expectancy at birth for men in the administrative district of the municipality with extended jurisdiction. 
  • Life expectancy at birth for women in the administrative district of the municipality with extended jurisdiction. 

The data about life expectancy when born are based on statistics of Czech Statistical Office for period 2017 - 2021.

Index weight: 10.0 %

The distribution of the results is relatively regular with the concentration at the center. The achieved values of 60% of the municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 3.8 - 6.7, which means that the average life expectancy does not differ much. Big differences in life expectance are found only in a few municipalities on both ends of the spectrum. The difference between municipalities with the lowest and the highest average life expectancy for men is about 7 years and for women is about 6 years.

Index of air pollution

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Average concentration of particles PM 10 in the municipality’s territorial air. 
  • Average concentration of particles PM 2,5 in the municipality’s territorial airy. 

The information about concentration of particles in the air is based on data recorded by the Czech Hydrometeorological Institute in 2017 - 2021.

Index weight: 5.8 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted towards higher values. The achieved values of 60% of the municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 4.2 - 6.8, which means that air quality does not differ much in most municipalities. At the same time, it is clear from the distribution that the municipalities with lowest values have significantly higher levels of pollution than the rest of the republic. These municipalities have been on the limit of the 2012 Air Protection Act air pollution limit values for a long time.

Index of presence of polluters

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The indicator represents the number of companies, that have reported releasing pollutants into the environment within a radius of 30 kilometers from the municipality's town hall. The companies are assigned weights based on the amount of the substances they released. Information about the releases is based on data recorded by  the European Pollutant Release and Transfer Register managed by European Environment Agency for 2020.

Index weight: 4.1 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted towards lower values with the concentration at the center. The achieved values of 60% of municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 2.6 - 5.9 and 20% of municipalities reached values above 6.0. Which means that in the several municipalities with the highest results, there is significantly less companies releasing pollutants than in the rest of the republic.

Index of protected natural areas

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The indicator represents total area of all kinds of protected natural areas within a radius of 30 kilometers from the municipality's town hall.

The information is based on data recorded by the Nature Conservation Agency of the Czech Republic for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 1.8 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular. The resulting index of more than half of municipalities is not higher than 2. This is due to the large difference in the availability of protected areas in the few municipalities with the highest results and the rest of the republic. These are municipalities with national parks and large protected landscape areas in their surroundings.

Index of unemployment

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The indicator represents the average share of unemployed people in the municipality. The share of unemployed people is calculated as the number of applicants for jobs in the age range of 15 - 64 years, who are registered at the Labour office, related to the overall population of people in the same age range.

The information is based on data recorded by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in the year 2021.

Index weight: 6.7 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards higher values. This is due to the fact that in the most of the municipalities unemployment is at a similar low level, while in municipalities at the bottom of the ladder the unemployment rate is significantly higher than in the rest of the republic. In general, unemployment in all regions of the Czech Republic is relatively low, which makes the Czech Republic at the level of unemployment one of leading countries in the whole European Union.

Index of available job offers published on job portals

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of jobs offered on job portals within a radius of 30 kilometers from the municipality's town hall 
  • Number of jobs offered on job portals in the territory of the municipality related to population.

The information about job offers is from the biggest internet job portals in the Czech Republic in 2022.

Index weight: 4.0 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards lower values. Only 20% of the municipalities reached an index value above 4.0. This means that the citizens of municipalities with the highest results have a significantly higher offering of jobs on job portals than those of most other municipalities.

Index of available job offers published by Labour office

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of jobs within a radius of 30 kilometers from the municipality's town hall offered by the Labour Office 
  • Number of jobs offered by the Labour Office in the territory of the municipality related to population.

The information is based on data recorded by the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs in 2021.

Index weight: 2.7 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards lower values. The resulting index of more than half of municipalities is not higher than 2.0 and only 20% of municipalities reached an index value higher than 4.2. This indicates that in the few of municipalities with the highest number of job offers, job offers at the Labor Office are significantly higher than in the rest of the republic.

Index of affordable housing

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The indicator represents average transactional price of one square meter of apartments in the territory of the municipality related to average gross salary in the municipality's region.

The information about average transactional price is based on the database of the internet portal cenovamapa.org, which records the real selling price of real estate in the Czech Republic. The data are for 2021.

Index weight: 5.8 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards lower values. Only 20% of municipalities reached values higher than 4.9, which means that in a few municipalities the average housing price is significantly lower than in most of the municipalities in the country. Generally speaking, housing prices in individual regions are quite distinct.

Index of material insufficiency

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Residents who receive welfare or financial contributions for living from public assistance programs in the municipality related to population. 
  • Residents who receive welfare or financial contributions for housing from public assistance programs in the municipality related to population 

The information is based on data recorded by the Labour office of the Czech Republic for 2021.

Index weight: 2.9 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards higher values. A total of 80% of municipalities reached values above 5.3. The distribution shows that in most municipalities the situation is similar to that of the municipality with the highest value. On the contrary, several municipalities at the bottom of the ladder are rated significantly lower compared to the rest of the republic.

Index of financial distress

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The indicator represents number of people in the administrative district of the municipality in financial distress related to population.

The data are provided by Central Evidence of Financial Distress, which is partner for the project. Data are for the year 2021.

Index weight: 2.9 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards higher values. A total of 80% of municipalities reached values above 4.6. The distribution shows that in the majority of municipalities, there is a similar share of the population in financial distress, which is slightly higher than in some of the few municipalities with the highest values. In contrast, in several municipalities at the bottom of the ladder, the share of people with financial distress is significantly higher than in the rest of the republic.

Index of kindergarten capacity

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The indicator represents the overall sum of capacities of kindergartens in the administrative district of the municipality with extended jurisdiction, related to the overall number of children aged 3 to 5.

The information about the capacity of elementary schools is based on data recorded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic for the school year 2021/2022. 

Index weight: 3.3 %

The distribution of the results is relatively regular with the concentration at the center. Achieved values of 60% of municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 3.5 - 6.3, which means that the availability of kindergartens does not differ much among most administrative districts. Significantly higher or lower values occur only in several administrative districts of municipalities at both ends of the ranking. 

Index of elementary school capacity

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The indicator represents the overall sum of capacities of elementary schools in the administrative district of the municipality with extended jurisdiction, related to the overall number of children aged 6 to 14.

The information about the capacity of elementary schools is based on data recorded by the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sport of the Czech Republic for the school year 2021/2022. 

Index weight: 1.7 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted towards higher values. A total of 80% of municipalities reached values higher than 4.0. Achieved values of 60% of the municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 4.0 - 6.7, which means that the availability of elementary school does not differ much among most administrative districts. Significantly higher or lower values occur only in several administrative districts of municipalities at both ends of ranking.

Index of quality high schools

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Share of high-quality high schools on overall number of high schools in the municipality's territory. 
  • Number of high-quality high schools within a driving range of 30 minutes from the municipality's town hall. 

The identification of high-quality high schools was based on students' results on national final exams. The information is based on Learning Outcomes Centre's 2021 statistics.

Index weight: 3.3 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards lower values. This means that in the few municipalities with the highest results there is a significantly higher availability of high-quality high schools than in most other municipalities. There are even a few municipalities where there are no schools with above-average student results on national final exams, neither in the municipality nor in the surrounding area.

Index of supermarkets

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of supermarkets in the municipality's territory related to population. 
  • Number of supermarkets within a driving range of 30 minutes from the municipality's town hall. 

The calculation considers the stores of the biggest retail chains in the Czech Republic for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 3.0 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted slightly to lower values. The achieved values of 60% of municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 3.0 - 5.3, which means that in most municipalities the availability of supermarkets does not differ significantly. A few municipalities at both ends of the ranking have significantly less or more of the largest retail chain stores.

Index of ATMs

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of ATMs in the municipality's territory related to population. 
  • Number of ATMs within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall. 

The calculation considers the ATMs of the biggest banks in the Czech Republic for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 2.0 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted slightly towards lower values. the achieved values of 60% of the municipalities are in relatively narrow range of 3.3 - 5,4, which means that in most municipalities the availability of ATMs does not differ significantly. A few municipalities at both ends of the ranking have significantly less or more of the ATMs.

Index of restaurants

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of restaurants in the territory of the municipality related to population. 
  • Number of restaurants within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall. 

The calculation considers all restaurants recorded by Google's map application for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 3.0 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards lower values. Only 20% of municipalities reached an index value higher than 4.3, and 60% of municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 2.2 - 4.3. This signifies a similar level of restaurant availability in most of the municipalities and a large difference in the few municipalities with the highest results.

Index of cinemas

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The indicator is composed of two indices with the same weight:

  • Number of movie projections in cinemas in the municipality's territory related to population. 
  • Number movie projections in cinemas within a 30-minute driving range of the municipality's town hall. 

The calculation considers permanent cinemas according to the Union of Film Distributors at the end of 2021. The number of movie projections is based on publicly available programs of relevant cinemas in 2022.

Index weight: 2.0 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, with 80% of municipalities not achieving index values higher than 3.3. This means that municipalities with the highest values have significantly higher access to movie projections in cinemas than other municipalities. These are mainly municipalities that have at least one multiplex nearby.

Index of road network

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The indicator represents the area of territory that is reachable by a 30-minute drive from the municipality's town hall.

The calculation considers speed limits on roads in the third quarter of 2022.

Actual traffic situations and closures are not included in the calculation.

Index weight: 4.2 %

The distribution of the results is relatively regular with the concentration at the center because the 20% of municipalities at the bottom of the ladder reached values in a similar range (0 - 3.2) as the 20% of municipalities with the highest values (values in the range of 6.7 - 10). The level of the road network varies from one municipality to the next, but for most municipalities the differences are not very large.

Index of railway transportation

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The indicator represents the average number of unique train connections of public transportation, that stop in the municipality in one month. Each train connection was assigned a value according to category of the train.

The information is based on data recorded by Správa železnic (Railway Infrastructure Administration) for 2022.

Index weight: 4.2 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, 80% of the municipalities have not reached an index value higher than 2.9. This means that the municipalities with the highest results have a significantly higher availability of train transport than other municipalities. These are mainly the municipalities that are passed through by the main railway corridors with a high number of international and national connections.

Index of citizen engagement

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The indicator represents number of interest-based associations in the municipality related to population.

The information is based on data from Public Register managed by Ministry of Justice of the Czech Republic for the third quarter of 2022.

Index weight: 1.7 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular, shifted slightly to lower values. The achieved values of 60% of the municipalities are in relatively narrow range of 2.7 - 5.7, which means that in most municipalities the number of clubs and associations does not differ significantly. A few municipalities at both ends of the ranking have significantly less or more of the numbers of clubs and associations.

Index of participation in regional and municipal elections

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The indicator is composed of two indices:

  • Participation in municipal elections in 2022. (weight 75%) 
  • Participation in regional elections in 2020. (weight 25%) 

The information is based on statistics from the Czech Statistical Office. In the case of Prague, electoral participation was the same for both elections because council elections in Prague happened during municipal elections.

Index weight: 1.7 %

The distribution of the results is relatively regular with the concentration at the center. The 20% of municipalities at the low end of the ranking reached values in a similar range (0 - 3.1) to the 20% of municipalities with the highest results (values in the range of 6.2 - 10). In most municipalities, electoral participation is at a similar level. However, the difference between municipalities with the highest result and the lowest result is 26%.

Index of traffic accidents

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The indicator represents the number of traffic accidents in the municipality's territory related to population.

The information is based on 2021 data recorded by the Police of the Czech Republic.

Index weight: 3.0 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted towards higher values. This indicates that in most municipalities the number of traffic accidents was similar when related to population, but the number of traffic accidents in the municipalities at the low end of the ladder was significantly higher.

Index of gambling

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The indicator represents the number of licensed gambling facilities in the municipality related to population.

The information is based on data recorded by the Ministry of Finance of the Czech Republic for the end of 2021.

Index weight: 2.0 %

The distribution of the results is very irregular, shifted towards higher values. More than 20% of the municipalities have achieved the same highest result 10. This is due to the fact that in several municipalities gambling is outlawed. On the contrary, 20% of the municipalities with the lowest values range from 0 - 6.6, which means there are large differences in access to gambling in these few municipalities compared to most municipalities in the Czech Republic.

Index of migrating young people

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The indicator represents difference between new residents and ousted former residents with permanent or long-term residents in the age range of 20 - 34 years old in the municipality.

The information is based on 2021 statistics of Czech Statistical Office.

Index weight: 3.3 %

The distribution of the results is irregular, shifted slightly to lower values. Only 20% of the municipalities reached an index value higher than 5.0 and 60% of the municipalities are in a relatively narrow range of 1.9 - 5.0. In the municipalities with an index value higher than 3.5, there is an increase in the population of young people. On the contrary, in the municipalities with a value lower than 3.5, there is a decrease in the population of young people. 

Index of population increase

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The indicator represents the number of new residents and born inhabitants minus the number of ousted former residents and deceased inhabitants in the municipality.

The information is based on 2021 statistics from the Czech Statistical Office.

Index weight: 3.3 %

The distribution of the results is slightly irregular with the 20% municipalities with the lowest results reaching values ranging from 0 - 2.6 and the 20% of the municipalities with the highest results ranging between 5.9 - 10. In the municipalities with an index value higher than 5.4, there is an increase in the population. On the contrary, in the municipalities with a value lower than 5.4, there is a decrease in the population.

Basic terminology

What is driving range?

The area that can be reached by car in a certain time from town hall of the municipality. Area calculation considers speeds limits on roads, but the traffic and current closures are not included.

What is a 30 km radius from town hall?

The area that is defined by a circle with a 30 km radius and the center at town hall.

What is population?

The number of inhabitants according to the Czech Statistical Office, valid to the date indicated on the data source for the index.

What is the territory of a municipality?

The territory of all cadastral areas that are part of the municipality.

Download methodology

Do you want to know how we work with indices? Download our basic methodology in PDF.

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We have published data year 2023. Have a look at municipalities and their results.