Around 60% of Czechs currently feel threatened, similar to the previous two years, according to a survey by the Center for Public Opinion Research (CVVM) conducted during the autumn and released this week. The most widespread fear is war, followed by a deterioration in living standards.
The survey also found that, compared to the end of 2022, fears of war have now increased, while fears of an energy crisis are lower. In the last two years, fear of COVID-19 virtually disappeared in society, according to CVVM.
Fear of war was mentioned by 43% of those who admitted to being afraid of something. 16% cited fear of a deterioration in their standard of living, and the same proportion cited concern for their own health. Fear of the future and the situation in the world was mentioned by 13% of respondents.
Concern for their loved ones and their health was expressed by a tenth of the survey participants who felt worried about something. 8% were worried about price increases and 5% about the general economic outlook of the Czech Republic.
Compared to the last survey from the end of 2022 and the beginning of 2023, concerns about war have increased by 11 percentage points. People are also slightly more likely now than in the last survey to express concern about their loved ones and about the future and developments in the world in general. Conversely, concerns about the energy crisis and rising energy prices have almost disappeared, dropping from 8 to 1%.
Concerns about COVID also disappeared in the current survey; this was the most concerning issue in 2021, shared by 31% of respondents.
The survey also asked about people’s sense of security – 91% of respondents feel secure in their place of residence, compared to 82% who said they feel secure in the Czech Republic. In the 20 years that CVVM has been tracking the feeling of safety in society, the number of people who feel definitely or rather safe in their country has increased very significantly, from 45 to 82%.
Czechs feel even safer in their place of residence than they do nationally. “Compared to the previous survey from the end of 2022, the situation in this area has not changed at all and the distribution of public opinions on this issue has thus been basically stable since 2017,” the survey authors added.
Data collection on people’s fears and feelings of safety began at the end of September and ended at the beginning of last December, before the tragic mass shooting at the Faculty of Arts at Charles University in Prague. “Therefore, these events could not be reflected in the opinion of the Czech public,” the CVVM analysts added.
A total of 913 respondents took part in the survey.
