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Population Stock and Flows in the Czech Republic

Methodology

Contents

The subject of population and vital statics is split into several chapters designated with letters according to individual data sets. Overview and synthetic data are contained in Chapter I, and all data refer to persons (including foreigners) with permanent residence in the Czech Republic (CR), foreigners with 90-days-and-over visa with duration of stay in the CR longer than 1 year, and foreigners with asylum status granted. The breakdown by size group of municipalities is used by the CZSO to define rural and urban population (i.e. in municipalities up to 2 thousand and over 2 thousand inhabitants).

In all of the sets, the ‘age' (in terms of years, months or weeks) always refers to calculated completed age. Only the length of life in days given for deaths of infants refers to calendar age - i.e. the difference between the date of birth and the date of deaths.

On 1 January 2000, constitutional Act No.347/1997 Coll., on the establishment of higher self-governing territories entered into force. Since 2000, districts and municipalities have been classified according to these new self-governing territorial units (regions). Regions and districts were assigned new codes of CZ-NUTS classification (NUTS 3 and NUTS 4). These were prepared according to Eurostat's methodology and introduced by the CZSO measure of 27 April 1999. The classification also introduced 8 areas (NUTS 2) designed for statistical purposes and international comparisons.

Population and vital statistics in the CR for 1921 - 2001

The retrospective of population and vital statistics encompasses events which took place on the territory of the CR. By 1929, the number of deaths under 1 month of age had been measured instead of the number of deaths under 28 days of age. As of 1 July 1954, internal and external migration relating to the CR has been encompassing all persons (including foreigners) with permanent residence in the CR and of 1 January 2001 all persons with permanent residence in the CR and foreigners with 90-days-and-over visa with duration of stay in the CR longer than 1 year, and foreigners with asylum status granted.

A. Population and vital statistics: overview

Total pregnancies are defined as the sum of life births, stillbirths and abortions. Stillbirth rate is the number stillbirths per 1,000 births. Infant mortality is the number of children who died within 1 year of age per 1,000 live births, neonatal mortality is the number of children who died under 28 days of age per 1,000 live births. Perinatal mortality is defined as the number of stillbirths and children who died under 7 calendar days of age (0 to 6 completed days of life) after delivery per 1,000 births. Selected towns in this chapter are all towns (a total of 522, incl. the capital city of Prague) which enjoyed the status of town (were governed by municipal authorities).

B. Marriages

Except table B.02, all tables are territorially broken down by residence of groom.

C. Divorces

Table C.01 lists all petitions for divorce filed, while the other tables contain a combination breakdown for divorced marriages only.


D. Births

Decree No. 11/1988 of the Ministry of Health of the CSR of 22 January 1988 defines a live-born child as a child fully expelled or removed out of the mother's body, who gives a sign of life and whose births is (a) 500 g or more, or (b) lower than 500 g, if it survives 24 hours after delivery. The signs of life include respiration, heartbeat, umbilicus pulsation or active movement of muscles, even if umbilical cord is not interrupted or placenta delivered. A stillborn child is a child fully expelled or removed out of the mother's body, not showing any sign of life and whose birth weight is 1,000 g or more.



E. Abortions

The tables listing abortions are prepared from a set of individual data taken over by the CZSO from the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the CR. The abortion is termination of pregnancy, in which (a) the foetus does not show any sign of life and its birth weight is below 1,000 g or cannot be measured, if the pregnancy takes less than 28 weeks, (b) the foetus shows at least one of the signs of life and its birth weight is below 500 g, but it does not live longer than 24 hours after delivery, (c) the foetal egg without a foetus or gestational decidua is removed out of the female's uterus. Considered as abortions are also cases of termination of ectopic pregnancy or induced abortions carried out as stipulated in special regulations. The former were included under induced abortions in 1987 to 1991 and under other abortions as of 1992. On 1 January 1994, the Ministry of Health of the CR introduced new printed forms with more detailed nomenclatures of the marital status and education of women and these were applied in the processing without any adjustment. Unlike the tables brought out by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics, figures in this publication include abortions of all women residing in the CR (i.e. including foreigners). In 2000, the Institute of Health Information and Statistics amended the coding of abortion types again. Code 2 defines vacuum aspiration (formerly abortion within 8 weeks) and code 2 refers to other legal abortions (formerly abortions after 8 weeks). This amendment was taken account of in Tables E.01 and E.03.

G. Deaths by cause


On 1 January 1994 the 10th decennial revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Problems (hereinafter referred to as ICD-10), formerly the International Classification of Diseases, Injuries and Causes of Death (ICDICD), was put into use in the CR by Act 278/1992 of the Czech National Council. The organization responsible for its use in practice is the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic. Unlike its 9th revision, ICD-10 uses a four-character alphanumerical code consisting of one letter and three digits. However, a three-character alpha numerical code is employed for basic statistical treatment. The range of the causes of death has been considerably expanded, and names and the order of death cause classes. External causes of injuries and poisoning cases (formerly supplementary classification E) are classified to a separate class (XX).

H. Migration

Migration for a higher self-governing territorial unit is defined as the sum of the volume for lower self-governing territorial units plus migration between lower self-governing territorial units. Gross migration is the sum of immigration and emigration within a given self-governing territorial unit. Internal migration includes cases of migrating between town planning districts of the capital city of Prague (even though, the migration occurs within the municipality).