Prague residents often do not declare their permanent residence, and the city loses billions as a result
“The survey confirmed a certain assumption we had, but which was not based on any verifiable facts,” said Prague’s Deputy Mayor Pavel Vyhnánek.
He added that according to the results, a typical resident without a permanent residence in the metropolis is a young person who came to study and settled in Prague after school. Vhnánek added that 54 percent of those interviewed without a permanent residence are also considering reporting their residence in the next five years, which is an opportunity for the city to target them with a campaign or incentive programs. “If they targeted this group and managed to convince them, we could reach about 4.5 billion kroner a year,” he said.
According to him, the city could motivate people who opt out by, for example, financial incentives for services such as public transport, parking, waste collection or entry to Prague attractions, or even a one-time financial reward. Possibilities of negative motivation include, for example, preventing the use of public services. “I would personally lean towards the positive motivators if the city decided to actively reach out to citizens,” Vyhnánek added.
Without foreigners, the metropolis would wither away. Indians, Romanians and Americans are increasing |
According to him, the change of residence is no longer a difficult exchange, and one has to go to the office only for the identity card and, in the case of car owners, the technical license. The rest can then be resolved by phone or online. At the same time, the absence of a permanent residence brings disadvantages, for example from the point of view of the paid parking zone, school and school enrollment or the possibility of applying for housing allowance.
The Institute of Planning and Development of Prague, which was currently published on the survey, which was based on anonymized data from mobile operators. According to that, there are about 1.3 million or roughly 300 thousand more people living in Prague instead of the official number. However, according to Vyhnánek, there will be a little less of those who really live in the city permanently, because data operators also include those who are in the metropolis for work, perhaps only for a year.
According to the Czech Statistical Office, approximately 1.28 million people lived in Prague as of December 31, 2021, which was 1.3 percent more. Last year, 15,993 people came. The increase was mostly caused by people moving to Prague. The average age of the inhabitants of Prague was the lowest in the country and amounted to 41.4 years, which is 1.3 years less than the national average. Among Prague residents, there were the most people with a university degree, and the largest number of foreigners also lived in the metropolis.