Prague, April 28 (CTK) – The number of centenarians, or people aged 100 and more, has declined in the Czech Republic in the past years, also because the weak generation of those born during World War One has reached the high age, Jana Buranova, from the Czech Social Administration Authority, told CTK yesterday.
A total of 603 centenaries, including 521 women and 82 men, lived in the 10.5-million Czech Republic by the end of March 2016.
The oldest of them, a woman from the South Moravia Region, was born in 1907.
The oldest man lives in the Liberec Region, north Bohemia. He was born in 1909.
In January 2013, the number of centenaries stood at 1,103.
Natality sharply declined in the Czech Lands during WWI. Before 1910, the annual number of births exceeded 300,000, but it fell to less than a half during the war, according to the Czech Statistical Office (CSU).
“Women have prevailed among the oldest pensioners for a long time. Most of the people who are hundred and more years old, 113, live in Prague now, and South Moravia and Central Bohemia follow with 88 and 55 of them, respectively,” Buranova said.
Czech society has been ageing. Demographers say the number of centenaries will increase to up to 13,000 in 2050 and almost 19,700 in 2065.
rtj/dr/kva
