Households’ Level of Living in the Capital of Czech Republic

Abstract

Abstract The level of living is one of the most important aspects in the life of an individual. In spite of its considerable importance the concept does not have a single objective indicator facilitating its quantification and a unique assessment. From the viewpoint of economics the level of living is defined by consumption of goods and services and it is measurable by means of macro-economic indicators. When conceived by sociology, it is the quality of life as assessed by indicators of non-material nature whose quantification is very difficult. Hence, a need arises here to set up indicators combining elements both of material and non-material nature that compose the level of living. The paper analyzes the development of selected level of living indicators as related to households of the Capital of Czech Republic and further it compares levels of special index numbers within EU. Distribution of wealth of the society is assessed using the Gini index number and the level of living is valued by means of the HDI (Human Development Index). The HDI is subdivided into the partial index numbers of health, education and income and the partial index numbers next give rise to the resulting HDI using gross domestic product. The region of the Czech Republic Capital presents very good results from the viewpoint of development tendencies and levels of the indicators assessed. Data sources have been obtained from the data banks of Czech Statistical Office, Eurostat and World Bank and have been processed using statistical methods from time series and index analysis area.