Prague in 2050: a city of senior citizens. But it should have more inhabitants than today
It is Prague and the Central Bohemian Region that will maintain relatively decent population stability for the next 36 years.
“However, it is important to remember that the younger years will definitely not prevail over the older ones. So the capital will age like other regions, but much more slowly,” explained Josef Škrabal, director of the Department of Population Statistics of the CZSO.
According to the director, Prague had almost 1,250 million inhabitants as of January this year, and in 2050 it is expected to have 1,385 million.
“The increase in population also depends on the attitude of the municipality, housing and social policy with regard to the higher birth rate. Prague also has one great peculiarity, which is the lowest number of inhabitants per apartment,” said director Josef Škrabal, adding that on average only two people live together in an apartment.
The question is crucial in this regard, and apparently only with great difficulty in the current development of society will the maximum number of children be born.
Obstetricians experienced a boom mainly between 2008 and 2010. And this despite the fact that, according to Terezia Štyglerová from the demographic statistics department of the CZSO, the number of 65-year-olds will increase in all regions. However, according to Štyglerová, Prague will not be so bad yet, migration and the influx of younger residents will contribute to this. The average age of the people of Prague would thus increase by less than three years in other futures, while in the regions according to the CZSO by up to nine years.
Foreigners mainly contribute to the growth
Nevertheless, Prague is already the “oldest” region: for every 100 people over the age of 64, there are 77 children under the age of 15, which means that the metropolis has the lowest proportion of children of all regions. and stay in the city, on the other hand, families with children or young people who want to start a family often live outside the city,” said Eva Vojtová, head of the Prague census department, adding that foreigners, who already make up 14 percent of the population, contribute to the growth of the population , especially Ukrainians, Russians and Slovaks.
It is also a fact that many people living in Prague move outside the city to the Central Bohemian region, so the number of children increased by only 3.5 percent compared to the last census. Prague is also traditionally the most educated city, almost 25 percent of university-educated people live here, another 34.5 percent have secondary education with a high school diploma. According to statistics, about 0.3 of the population is illiterate. “It is a not quite definitive result, the details in this regard will be known after the definitive analysis,” said Vojtová.
The family model cannot yet be determined
The results of the census also show how it is with the obligations of the population. There are the most single men suitable for marriage in Prague. It is 44 percent of all men. 36 percent of women are unmarried, unfortunately Prague also holds the lead when it comes to divorces. “The model of the Prague family cannot yet be determined precisely based on the census results processed so far, it will become completely clear only after the details of households have been worked out,” pointed out Vojtová. At the time of the census, approximately 69,500 widows and over 14,100 widowers lived in Prague.
According to the statistical office, whether the population stability or the possible appreciable range of the population of Prague will continue to be maintained also depends on the development of society. That is, if the current trend of downsizing households will continue or, on the contrary, the trend of increasing families will start.
Where and how to continue building
A population explosion may occur unknowingly, and with it the related problem of the housing stock. This raises another question. That is, where and how to continue to build, because sooner or later the possibilities of spatial planning in the metropolis will come to an end. This has already happened, for example, in Singapore, Tokyo and Sydney, Australia. They are built especially tall and often very large.
“It is quite clear that Prague is not and will not be so-called inflatable. The tendency of the city is mainly the densification of buildings and the preservation of greenery. “Satellite towns, for example, already have a problem with that,” said Jitka Cvetlerová, director of the construction department and spatial planning at the Prague municipality. However, according to Cvetlerová, skyscrapers will not grow in the metropolis by 2050.
“Locations here have a height restriction and it will remain so,” said Jitka Cvetlerová. According to the director, the disappearance of the unique panorama of the city on the Vltava River and the seat of the Czech kings in Hradčany cannot be allowed. react to each other.
“Respectively, it is already reacting, because for some residents, for example, Střížkov represents something like an unknown island country. The person in question asked his acquaintance from Střížkov whether they can go to his district with a passport or if they already need a passport,” she looked back at a recently overheard conversation at a certain department store.
Fears will drive more and more people to the cities
However, the architect Václav Beneš, for example, does not underestimate the mentioned exaggeration. “Big cities provide great anonymity, but at the same time they dehumanize a person to a certain extent. It won’t be any other way, the conductor of life is now the economy. We also adapt housing requirements to this. One wants a villa, the other wants to uncritically build it from a studio apartment,” noted Václav Beneš, adding that fears about the future will drive more and more people to the cities.
“Peace for living in 2050 will no longer exist anywhere, not even in the proverbial countryside. It’s quiet there only in winter, when lawnmower engines aren’t growling from all sides. Civilization accelerates its pace, everyone can easily compare it to themselves. In some thirty-six years, as yet unknown technologies will make life easier in many ways, but certainly not in one. A person will be alone in a huge crowd,” prophesied the architect Beneš