Statistická ročenka Pardubického kraje
Characteristics of the Pardubický Region
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE PARDUBICKÝ REGION The Pardubický Region is located in the East of Bohemia. The position of the Region is further determined by the neighbouring Regions: Středočeský, Královéhradecký, Olomoucký, Jihomoravský and Vysočina. The Královéhradecký, Liberecký and Pardubický Regions together form a NUTS 2 territory – The Northeast. A part of the northeast border of the Region is also the national border between the Czech Republic and Poland. The borders of the Region are further formed by southern parts of Orlické hory (the Eagle Mountains) and westernmost parts of the Hrubý Jeseník Mountain Range. The highland parts of Železné hory (the Iron Mountains) together with Žďárské vrchy (the Žďár Hills) line the south and southeast, while the the Labe lowland is situated in the central and western parts. Orlické hory, Žďárské vrchy, and Železné hory are protected landscape areas. 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% and arable land makes 44.2% of the total area. 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 part of the third highest mountain range in the CR. The central and the top part of the Králický Sněžník mountain range, 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. 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 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, the significance of which 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 upper 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 the Ústí nad Orlicí and the Vysoké Mýto syncline of the Czech Cretaceous Basin (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 2008, 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 1,142 inhabitants per municipality ranks the Region tenth in the CR. Of the Region’s population, 13.7% live in municipalities under 500 inhabitants. There is seen a gradual increase in the share of inhabitants living in municipalities of the population between 500 – 1,999, which now makes 24.5%. The percentage of population living in municipalities of 2,000 – 9,999 inhabitants is 20.0% in the Region. The percentage of population living in municipalities of over 10,000 inhabitants has been decreasing slowly in recent years and made 41.9% as at 31 December 2008. In the Region’s capital Pardubice, there live 17.4% of the population of the Region. The Region’s population was 515,185 as at 31 December 2008, which is 4.9% of the CR’s total population. In comparison with 2007 there was an increase of the Region’s population by 0.7%. The Pardubice District is the most populated, followed by Ústí nad Orlicí, Svitavy and Chrudim Districts, respectively. The following towns rank among the most populated: Pardubice, Chrudim and Svitavy. Regarding the distribution of the population by age in 2008 when compared to 2007, there was a decrease in the under 15 age group (by 0.5%), while an increase was observed in the 65+ age group (by 2.6%). The ratio of 65+ population to that under 15 (the dependency ratio) amounted to 103.7 in 2008 (in 2007 it was 100.6). The dependency ratio for females in 2008 was 128.3, while for males it was only 80.7. 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 was the activation of housing construction in 2006 and 2007. However, in 2008 the Pardubický Region ranked ninth in terms of the number of started dwellings per 1,000 inhabitants. In comparison with the previous year, the number of started dwellings was by one third lower in the Region this year. Although the total number of completed dwellings decreased by 1 % in the Region, the number of completed dwellings per 1,000 inhabitants was the sixth highest among regions in 2008. The highest number of dwellings within the Region was completed in the District of Pardubice (843 dwellings); on the contrary, the lowest number of completed dwellings in 2008 was in the District of Svitavy (only 280 dwellings). The 2008 average registered number of employees was 135 thousand 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 20,058 in 2008 (actual persons), which makes 85.2% of the national average (it is the third lowest wage 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 eighth lowest in 2007 (workplace method; incl. enterprises with less than 20 employees). The registered unemployment rate was 5.95% as at 31 December 2008 (the sixth lowest among the Regions) and was by 0.52 percentage point higher than in 2007. The highest unemployment rate is reported in the Svitavy District (8.84%). The registered number of the unemployed amounts to 16,998 persons and makes 4.8% of the unemployed in the whole CR. Among registered job applicants, 40.8% in the Region are those in the under 34 age group. Females make about half (50.9%) of the unemployed; handicapped persons make 20.5% of the total number of the unemployed. Regarding educational attainment, most of the job applicants are observed among persons with secondary vocational education (43.0%) and basic education (26.4%). There were 4.7 job applicants per vacancy in the Region (which is three times more than in 2007); regarding work positions for handicapped persons, there were 21.3 job applicants per vacancy. In 2008, the purchasing power standard gross domestic product (GDP) per inhabitant was 66.8% of the EU27 average (by 0.3 percentage points less than in 2007). Five branches of industry make a significant contribution to the Region’s GDP, comprising 69.8% 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 2008 was 30.3%. High share in gross value added was observed also at wholesale and retail trade (11.1%), at transport, storage and communications (10.5%), at real estate, renting and business activities (10.4%), and at construction (7.6% 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 3,597 km, of which roads classified into class I measure 458 km, roads classified into class II 909 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; construction of final link to I/37 road near Opatovice nad Labem continued until the end of 2009. 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 2008 the total of 307 nursery schools in the Pardubický Region, with 16,074 children enrolled in 671 classes. Other educational establishments comprise: 252 basic schools with 42,521 pupils, 21 grammar schools with 7,061 pupils, 59 secondary schools (includig secondary vocational schools) with 18,350 students of initial study (follow-up courses not included), and 11 higher professional schools with 1,070 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 2008: 10 hospitals (2,681 beds), 6 specialised therapeutic institutions (1,201 beds), in that 2 therapeutic institutions for long-term patients (186 beds) and 143 pharmacies including detached workplaces. Besides the establishments mentioned above, there are 922 independent surgeries of GPs and specialists and number of other various independent health establishments in the Region (e.g. establishments run by a person with non-medical university education, independent laboratories, etc.). The 2008 F/T equivalent number of physicians was 1,910 (1,875 physicians at non-government establishments). There were 269 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 2008, there was the total of 338 collective tourist accommodation establishments with 19,607 beds in the Pardubický Region, providing service to 361 thousand guests with the average number of overnight stays amounting to 2.9. 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 (the birthplace of composer Bohuslav Martinů), which have their tradition. As for theatre, the most famous is Východočeské divadlo (the Theatre of East Bohemia) in Pardubice, which also holds a festival of comedies (Festival smíchu) from the theatres all over the Czech Republic since 2001. 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 2008:
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