Statistická ročenka Pardubického kraje

Characteristics of the Pardubický Region

The area of 4,519 km2 (5.7% of the CR’s area) ranks the Region fifth smallest among the Regions of the CR. Agricultural land makes 60.4% of the total area, with arable land making 44.2% of agricultural land. Forest land covers 29.5% of the Region’s area. The highest point of the Region is the Králický Sněžník Mount (1424m above sea level), which is the third highest point in the CR. The whole of the Králický Sněžník Mount area, involving remains of original vegetation and moorland, has been declared a national nature reserve. The lowest point of the Region is the surface of the Labe River at Kojice (201m above sea level), near the western border of the Region.

The quality of the environment varies throughout the Region, owing to a great diversity in natural conditions, settlement, industrial and agricultural activities. It is the foothill and upland areas lacking any rather large settlements of central and northern parts of the Ústí nad Orlicí District and southern parts of the Chrudim District that suffer from the impact of human activities in the least degree. The greatest degree of that impact is seen in the area of concentrated industrial activities, settlement and traffic – the Pardubice area. Here, the environmental damage, resulting particularly from chemical and power industry (the Paramo and Synthesia chemical works, the Opatovice and Chvaletice power plants), has grown to involve the most serious environmental problems within the whole CR.

Regarding water management, the Pardubický Region is an extraordinary important area with excessive water supplies, whose significance reaches beyond the regional level, of ground water as well as surface water drawn from watercourses. The Region involves many headstreams, without any inflow pollution from other catchment areas. A rather low degree of wastewater pollution is seen in middle and lower parts of watercourses, except for the Labe River and the upper course of the Svitava River. The three largest water surface areas are the Seč Reservoir (on the Chrudimka River), the Bohdaneč Pond (on the Opatovice River Channel) and the Pastviny Dam (on the Divoká Orlice River). Some parts of the Region are under large-scale protection measures, i.e. they involve water protection zones, or natural water accumulation protected areas (CHOPAV). The ground water supplies are connected particularly with synclines of the Czech Cretaceous Basin in eastern Bohemia (the Ústí nad Orlicí District and the Svitavy District) and with the Labe quaternary sediments (the Pardubice District).

The Pardubický Region comprises four Districts (Chrudim, Pardubice, Svitavy, and Ústí nad Orlicí), and 451 municipalities as at 31 December 2007, which is the sixth highest number of municipalities among the 14 Regions in the CR). The average cadastral area of municipality 10.0 km2 is the third smallest in the CR and the average mean number of population 1,128 inhabitants ranks the Region tenth in the CR. And it is the cooperation among municipalities that is the basis for the gradual process of forming micro-regions, which is one of the Region’s strengths that should contribute to its overall development. Of the Region’s population, 14.0% live in municipalities under 500 inhabitants, which is by two thirds higher than the national average. There is seen a gradual increase in the share of inhabitants living in municipalities of the population between 500 – 1,999, which now makes 24.0%, being by one third higher than the national average. The percentage of population living in municipalities of 2,000 – 9,999 inhabitants is 20.0% in the Region, which is by 1.6% higher than the national average. The percentage of population living in municipalities of over 10,000 inhabitants makes 42.0%, which is about by one fifth lower than the national average. In the Region’s capital Pardubice, there live 17.5% of the population of the Region.

The Region’s population was 511,400 as at 31 December 2007, which is 4.9% of the CR’s total population. In comparison with 2006 there was an increase of the Region’s population by 0.7%. The following Districts rank among the most populated: Pardubice, Ústí nad Orlicí, Svitavy and Chrudim, respectively. The following towns rank among the most populated: Pardubice, Chrudim and Svitavy. Regarding the distribution of the population by age in 2007 when compared to 2006, there was a decrease in the under 15 age group (by 0.9%), while an increase was observed in the 65+ age group (by 1.6%). The ratio of 65+ population to that under 15 (the dependency ratio) amounted to 100.6 in 2007 (in 2006 it was 98.1). The dependency ratio for females in 2007 was 125.6, while for males it was only 77.8. This big difference is caused mainly by lower age of males at death but also by higher share of boys born.

One of the fundamental requirements to reverse the disadvantageous demographic development is to stimulate housing construction. In 2007, the Pardubický Region ranked fourth in terms of the number of started dwellings per 1,000 inhabitants. In comparison with the previous year, the number of completed dwellings was by 23.2% higher in the Region this year. The number of completed dwellings in family houses per 1,000 inhabitants was the fourth highest among regions in 2007. The highest number of dwellings within the Region was completed in the District of Pardubice (927 dwellings); on the contrary, the lowest number of completed dwellings in 2007 was in the District of Chrudim (only 175 dwellings).

The 2007 average registered number of employees was 134,909 F/T equivalent persons. The average monthly gross wage in the Pardubický Region has been experiencing a continual increase over last years, amounting to CZK 18.569 in 2007 (actual persons), which makes 85.6% of the national average (it is the third lowest wage right after the Karlovarský Region and the Olomoucký Region). Regarding industrial breakdown in an inter-region comparison, as for average gross wages of the employed in industry the Region was the third lowest and in construction the Region was the seventh lowest in 2006 (workplace method; incl. enterprises with less than 20 employees).

The registered unemployment rate was 5.43% as at 31 December 2007 (the sixth place among the Regions) and was by 1.48 percentage point lower than in 2006. The highest unemployment rates are reported in the Svitavy District (8.36%). The registered number of the unemployed amounts to 15,417 persons and makes 4.3% of the unemployed in the whole CR. Among registered job applicants, 37.9% in the Region are those in the under 34 age group. Females make about half (53,6%) of the unemployed; handicapped persons make 23.2% of the total number of the unemployed. Regarding educational attainment, most of the job applicants are observed among persons with secondary vocational education (43.1%) and basic education (28.0%). There were 1.6 job applicants per vacancy in the Region (which is by 39.1% less than in 2006); regarding work positions for handicapped persons, there were 9.4 job applicants per vacancy.

In 2007, the purchasing power standard gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant was 69.1% of the EU27 average (by 3.8 percentage points more than in 2006). Five branches of industry make a significant contribution to the Region’s GDP, comprising 72.4% of the Region’s gross value added. The decisive role is played by the manufacturing industry, the share of which in gross value added of the Region in 2007 was 32.6%. High share in gross value added was observed also at transport, storage and communications (11.6%), at wholesale and retail trade (10.5%), at real estate, renting and business activities (10.4%), and at construction (7.3% of gross value added of the Region).

The favourable position of the Pardubický Region is a promise for its further development from the transport point of view. The Region has 541 km of rail tracks, the most important rail crossing stations are towns Pardubice and Česká Třebová that are part of the international rail highway Berlin, Prague, Brno and Vienna. In Pardubice, tracks of national relevance link to the main track, providing the connection to Liberec, and to Havlíčkův Brod via Chrudim and Hlinsko. The current road network comprises the total of 3,590 km, of which roads classified into class I measure 454 km, roads classified into class II 906 km and highways 8 km. The most important transit flow goes through the Region via the road No. l/35 leading from southeast to northwest via Moravská Třebová, Svitavy, Litomyšl, Vysoké Mýto and Holice towards Hradec Králové. The also important route is the road No. I/37 coming from the north via Pardubice and Chrudim towards Ždírec nad Doubravou. In Chrudim, it meets the road No. I/17 leading from Čáslav, via Heřmanův Městec, Hrochův Týnec to Zámrsk. By the end of 2006 the first 8 km of motorway (D 11) was put into operation on the territory of the region (so far for passenger cars only). Construction of final link to I/37 road near Opatovice nad Labem will continue until 2008. As for the air transport, the international airport in Pardubice plays the principal role, providing military and civil air traffic operation. In terms of water transport, only a short navigable part of the Labe River to Chvaletice is in use, opening a waterway to the regional capital has been postponed. One of the biggest seasonal tourist attractions is the river transport of persons operating on the route Kunětice – Pardubice – Přelouč.

Regarding education, there was reported in 2007 the total of 308 nursery schools in the Pardubický Region, with 15,549 children enrolled in 659 classes. Other educational establishments comprise: 254 basic schools (2,258 classes, 44,046 pupils), 21 grammar schools (7,125 pupils), 46 secondary technical schools (11,266 students), 32 secondary vocational schools (8,031 pupils) and 11 higher professional schools (1,711 students). University education in the Region is provided at the University of Pardubice comprising seven faculties.

As for health care, the Pardubický Region involved the following establishments in 2007: 10 hospitals (2,681 beds), 6 specialised therapeutic institutions (1,196 beds), in that 2 therapeutic institutions for long-term patients (186 beds) and 142 pharmacies including detached workplaces. Besides the establishments mentioned above, there are other various independent health establishments in the Region (e.g. GP’s consulting rooms, specialist’s consulting rooms, establishments run by a person with non-medical university education, independent laboratories, etc.). The 2007 F/T equivalent number of physicians was 1,827 (1,779 physicians at non-government establishments). There were 280 inhabitants per physician.

The Pardubický Region has a great potential for the development of tourism. One can find there lowland as well as mountainous landscape, agreeable climate as well as many places fit for bathing, water sports, hiking, cycling tourism and winter sports. Areas attractive for tourists are especially northern and eastern part of the Ústí nad Orlicí District – foothills of the Orlické hory mountains, ski resort in Buková hora-Suchý vrch, and the area of Králický Sněžník. In the Chrudim District, mainly in its southern and southwestern part, there are also many tourist centres – the most visited are: the area around the Seč dam, areas at Horní Bradlo, Bojanov and Křižanovice in the Železné hory mountains. Agrotourism is winning popularity throughout the whole Region (in the foothill areas, in particular), especially the estates devoted to traditional horse breeding play a primary role. In 2007, there was the total of 362 collective tourist accommodation establishments in the Pardubický Region, providing service to 388,240 guests. The average number of overnight stays was 3.0 and the average length of stay 4.0 days. The number of collective accommodation establishments, beds in them and number of guests in the Pardubický Region belong to the lowest in the inter-region comparison.

Cultural establishments and activities in the Region are concentrated mostly in towns. Among the most important we can mention Muzeum loutkářských kultur (the Puppet Museum) in the Chrudim District, state chateau in Slatiňany with its horse museum, open-air (folk) museum (a set of folk constructions in Vysočina area at Veselý Kopec hill and adjacent localities of Hlinsko area). In the Pardubice District, visitors are attracted especially by the Castle of Pardubice, where one can see the exhibits of the Východočeské muzeum (Museum of East Bohemia) and the Východočeská galerie (Gallery of East Bohemia). Interesting for them is also late-Gothic castle at Kunětická hora mountain and Africké muzeum (Museum of Africa) in the town of Holice, which is devoted to Dr. Emil Holub, who was a famous traveller born in Holice. Every year, more and more visitors are coming also to the National Stud Farm in Kladruby nad Labem, which besides regular sightseeing tours organizes various actions for horse lovers, too. In the Svitavy District, tourists are attracted by the Svojanov castle or the area of the Litomyšl chateau, which was added to the UNESCO´s World Cultural Heritage List in 1999. In the Ústí nad Orlicí District, well-known are ruins of the following castles: Lanšperk, Litice, Žampach and historical centres of towns. Music in the Region is usually connected with famous Komorní filharmonie (the Pardubice Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra) but also Smetanova Litomyšl (Smetana’s Litomyšl), the festival of classical music, or other music festivals held in Polička, which have their tradition. As for theatre, the most famous is Východočeské divadlo (the Theatre of East Bohemia) in Pardubice. Already since 1995, Přelouč has hosted the awarding ceremony of Cena Františka Filipovského (the Prize of František Filipovský) for dubbing.

Regarding sports activities, the Pardubice Horserace Course, where the Velká Pardubická Steeplechase is held, is the best known. Motor sports fans are certain to recall the speedway race Zlatá přilba České republiky (the Golden Helmet of the Czech Republic). Moreover, the Pardubický Region ranks on the top in connection with other sports, too. It is the ice hockey with the Pardubice extra league team breeding players of international quality; it is the tennis courts frequently remembered by almost every Czech famous tennis player, because the Championship of the Czech Republic for young competitors opens professional career for the talented youth.

In the end, here are several points, for which the Pardubický Region was unique in 2007:

• the lowest number of abortions per 100 births;
• the lowest share of employed foreigners holding valid trade licence;
• the highest share of machinery and transport equipment in export from the region;
• the highest number of calves per 100 cows;
• the highest number of hens per 100 ha of arable land;

• the second lowest labour productivity in construction work;
• the second lowest waste generation of businesses per capita;
• the second lowest number of hospitalized patients per 1,000 population;
• the second lowest number of fires per 1,000 population;
• the second lowest number of prosecuted/investigated persons per 1,000 population;
• the second highest turnout in election into regional councils held on 17-18 October 2008;
• the second highest share of cattle per 100 ha of agricultural land;

• the third lowest share of GDP per employee;
• the third lowest share of population living in houses connected to public sewerage systems;
• the third lowest number of crimes per 1,000 population;
• the third lowest number of collective accommodation establishments;
• the third lowest average price for accommodation in collective tourist accommodation establishments;
• the third highest share of population living in municipalities under 1,000 inhabitants;
• the third highest share of agricultural land in total area of the Region;
• the third highest share of export per capita;

• the fourth lowest average gross monthly wage in industry (enterprises with 100 employees or more)
• the fourth lowest average monthly amount of full old-age pensions;
• the fourth highest number of dwellings started per 1,000 population;