How the Income Situation of Households in the CR Responds to the Economic Development of the Society

The paper deals with the relation between the income situation of households in the Czech Republic and economic growth. The monitoring covers a period of 2005–2010, i.e. a period of a relatively high economic growth and a beginning economic crisis. The period has been chosen based on the available dataset from a survey of the income situation of households and their living conditions - project EU-SILC (European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions) - using a unified EU methodology. The income situation of inhabitants has been evaluated from the perspectives of its level and its differentiation. The used indicators were the mean disposable income per a household member, a decile distribution of income, the Gini coefficient for the measurement of income disparities, the poverty threshold and the depth of poverty. The results show that in the years of economic growth, i.e. 2005, 2006, and 2007, indicators of income situation displayed a positive trend – the mean disposable income per a household member increased including the median income situation, the number of households at risk of poverty decreased – in 2008 the proportion of Czech households at risk of poverty achieved the lowest percentage of all EU countries, i.e. 5.56%. The beginning economic recession in 2008 can be observed in the values of macroeconomic indicators. The changes in the income situation of households started to be more markedly manifested as late as in 2010, besides the decrease in the final consumption of households, there was a change in the interannual growth of the mean income of households and an increase in the number of households at risk of poverty. The conclusions prove an up to two-year delay of the impacts of the economic development of the society on the living conditions of households.