The Czech Republic has the ninth highest social solidarity and trust in the EU, but the integrity of Czech society is undermined by the long-standing low trust in the government and persistent corruption, according to the Prosperity and Financial Health Index published by the Ceska Sporitelna bank, and the Europe in Data portal.
The results for the Czech Republic are similar to recent years.
The willingness of Czechs to help has contributed to the relatively good score. The index showed that 63% of them helped a stranger in the last month. People in the Czech Republic can also often rely on the support of loved ones: Nine out of ten have someone to turn to in an emergency.
In recent years, however, more and more people have had to rely on themselves.
“While 96.4% of Czechs had someone to turn to in 2020, this figure has been decreasing every year since. By 2023, it was only 92.7%,” said Milan Marik, from Europe in Data. However, he added that 2020 was not a typical year because of COVID-19, and that the current figures have returned to similar levels to before the coronavirus pandemic.
According to data from the World Giving Index 2023, almost one-third of Czechs helped a person unknown to them, which puts the Czech Republic in the third position in the EU.
The Czech Republic also ranks relatively well in terms of the credibility of the judiciary. Nearly two-thirds of the population trust judges, the 11th highest share in the EU.
On the other hand, they are more sceptical about the government, with an average trust rating of 29.1% over the last ten years, according to Eurobarometer, ranking 16th in the EU. According to more recent data from the CVVM polling institute from February, the current trust in the government has dropped to 20%.
The latest decline in trust in the government began with the coronavirus pandemic during the premiership of Andrej Babis (ANO), which was followed by the energy crisis and high inflation seen under his successor Petr Fiala (ODS).
Czech perception of corruption was the worst of the solidarity indicators. According to Transparency International, which has been monitoring the issue for a long time, the Czech Republic was the 12th worst in the EU in terms of perceived corruption.
