Assessment of the income situation of households in the Czech Republic

The paper deals with the assessment of income situation of households in the Czech Republic. The primary source for the analysis were the data of the survey EU-SILC European Union – Statistics on Income and Living Conditions. The basic variable for the analysis is the level of the household income in 2005–2008. In addition to the decile classification, characteristics such as the average income per one household member, poverty threshold, poverty depth coefficient, Lorenz curve and Gini coefficient. were calculated in order to evaluate the income situation. The results show an increase of the average household income. The Lorenz curve followed by the Gini coefficient demonstrate the uniformity of distribution of income values. The results show a decreasing income differentiation. The poverty threshold was defined on the level of 60% of the median value and with this given threshold, the households were assessed, whether they belong to the ones at the risk of poverty. The results reveal a decreasing number of households at the risk of poverty. The poverty depth coefficient has a stronger explanatory power and shows how far below the poverty threshold the households are, or what is an income deficit of these households. Each category of households at the risk of poverty varies with the depth of poverty. The analysis also provides the results of how the households’ income situation or poverty is perceived by the households themselves.