Czech Households Most Vulnerable to Poverty

This paper discusses the problems of poverty in the Czech Republic. It focuses on the identification of social groups and on ways of identifying the income situation of households that are the most vulnerable to poverty, especially low-income households and households of the elderly. Micro data obtained from the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) project were used for the basis of the in-depth discussions herein. The data provides a significant amount of important information about the incomes and living conditions of European as well as Czech households, and also about individuals. The poverty threshold is set as 60% median of equalized income. The data in this paper are tracked for the period 2005-2013. Generally speaking, the poverty rate in the Czech Republic is the lowest in the European Union. The results provide useful insights for decision makers involved in developing social policy.