Methodical notes - Material living conditions

Income

Median of equalised disposable income is the value of the equalised disposable income, which divides the population according to income amount into two equally numerous parts according to number of persons.

Equalised disposable income is defined as the total disposable income of household divided by the equalised number of household members. This income is assigned to each member of households.

Equalised scale is scale of coefficients used for calculation of indicators of poverty in accordance with Eurostat methodology, so called modified OECD scale, where coefficient 1 is assigned to the first adult household member, 0.5 to the second one and each adult household member, 0.5 to persons 14 years old and older and 0,3 to each child younger than 14 years. This scale is used for calculation of equalised household size.

Inequality of income distribution - Income ratio of upper and lower quintile (S80/S20) - is the ratio of the sum of equalised disposable income received by the 20% of the country´s population with the highest income upper quintile) to that received by the 20% of the country´s population with the lowest income (lower quintile).

At-risk-of poverty rate anchored at a fixed moment in time (2008) - in year t, it is the share of persons with an equalised disposable income below the at- risk-of-poverty threshold in year t-3, uprated by inflation over the three years.

At-risk-of-poverty rate - is share of persons in the total population with an equalised disposable income below the at-risk-of-poverty threshold (60% of the national median equalised disposable income). This indicator is defined for various groups of individuals and households.

The persistent at-risk-of-poverty rate is the percentage of the population living in households where the equalised disposable income was below the at- risk-of-poverty threshold for the current year and at least two out of the preceding three years.

Material conditions - Material deprivation

Severe material deprivation rate is share of persons, who experienced lack at least 4 out of 9 of the following items, which household cannot afford to: a) face unexpected expenses, b) a week holiday away from home, c) pay arrears related to mortgage or rental payments or utility bills, pay instalments of purchases or other loans d) eat meal with meat, chicken or fish every second day, e) keep home adequately warm, or although the household would like to have but it cannot afford: f) washing machine, g) colour TV, h) telephone or i) car.

The share of population living in household, which have the large difficulties to make ends meet - „The difficulty to make ends meet“ means with what level of difficulties, the household cope with paying the usual necessary expenses (food, rent, payment for electricity, gas, etc.) in relation to the total monthly household income.

Notes to breakdown

Number of dependent children

Dependent child is defined as person who is household member and who is at the age 15 including or at the age from 16 to 24, economically inactive and who lives at least with one parent.

Methodical notes - Productive or main activity

Employed persons are defined as all persons aged 15 and over who during the reference week:

• worked at least one hour of work for pay or profit (full-time or part-time job, permanent, temporary, casual or seasonal job) including employed persons working abroad up to 1 year and cross-border commuters, persons working under agreements on work performed outside employment relationship and persons who performed activation works,
• had a job but did not work due to illness, holiday, maternity leave, training, bad weather conditions, strike and lock-out except for persons on long-term unpaid leave from work and persons taking parental leave,
• the employed persons also include unpaid contributing family workers.

Employees - persons aged 15 and over who work in the reference week at least one hour and who receive compensations in the form of wage or salary, including members of productive co-operatives.

Self-employed - self-employed with employees (employers) or self- employed without employees (own-account workers).

Employment rate by age - the percentage of the population in certain age group who are employed.

Unemployed - all persons aged 15-74 who were not working for pay or profit during the reference week, who are actively seeking job during the last four weeks or who found a job to start within a period of at most 3 months and who are able to start work in the next two weeks following the reference week. Those persons may but need not always be a job applicants registered at employment office.

Unemployment rate by age - the percentage of economically active persons in certain age group who are unemployed.

Economically active population (labour force) - persons aged 15 and over that are employed or unemployed.

Economic activity rate by age - the percentage of persons aged 15 and over in certain age group who are economically active.

Methodical notes - Health

Health status

Life expectancy at birth – the mean number of years that a person can expect to live at birth if subjected to current mortality conditions throughout the rest of his or her life.

Healthy Life Years (HLY) – measures the number of years that a person is still expected to live in a healthy condition. HLY is a health expectancy indicator which combines information on mortality and morbidity. The indicator is calculated separately for males and females.

General health is a summary of the various dimensions of health that is physical, social and emotional functioning and biomedical signs and symptoms when respondents assessed subjectively his/her health. Temporary health problems were not taken into account.

Long-standing health problem - the term longs-standing means illness or health problems which have lasted, or are expected to last, for 6 months or more (It is irrelevant whether the health problem is diagnosed by a doctor or not).

Determinants: healthy and unhealthy behaviours

Body mass index (BMI) is a person's weight in kilograms divided by his or her height in meters squared. It is calculated for adult persons (from 18 years).

BMI = weight (kg)/height (m)²

• underweight: BMI < 18,5
• optimal weight: 18,5 ≤ BMI < 25
• overweight: 25 ≤ BMI < 30
• obesity: BMI ≥ 30

Everyday smokers – share of persons who smoke cigarettes daily (regardless of the number of smoked cigarettes). Only cigarettes including hand-rolled are taken into consideration. Other tobacco products as cigars, pipes tobacco are excluded.

Methodical notes - Education

Competences and skills - Educational attainment

The classification of educational activities is based on the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Data until 2013 are classified according to ISCED 1997 and data as from 2014 according to ISCED 2011 (coding of educational attainment). Data on educational attainment are in general presented for three aggregates.

Early leavers from education and training - the percentage of the population aged 18 to 24 having attained at most lower secondary education and not being involved in further education or training.

Formal education - the regular education.

Non-formal education - all learning activities organised outside the regular education, in which persons participated during the last 4 weeks. Non-formal education includes learning activities such as courses, retraining courses, conferences, seminars, meetings, workshops, correspondence courses, University of the Third Age, private lessons, study circles, interest courses or circles and etc.

Methodical notes - Leisure and social interactions

Leisure - Quantity of leisure

Average rating of satisfaction with time use - it refers to the respondent's opinion/feeling, when he/she make reflective appraisal of all areas of his /her time use in a particular point in time (current).

Social interactions - Relations with people

Average rating of satisfaction with personal relationships - it refers to the respondent’s opinion/ feeling, respectively about the degree of satisfaction with his/her personal relationships. Personal relationships include all possible relationships, with e.g. relatives, friends, colleagues from work and etc. It's reflective assessment of all areas of personal relationships in a particular point in time (these days).

Frequency of getting together with relatives and with friends - it refers frequencies of which the respondent usually contacts with relatives and friends.

Contacts with friends - the percentage of the population that has contacts with friends less often than once a year or never.

Social interactions - Activities for people

Informal voluntary activities - these are activities that take place outside of organizational context and have tend to be done on an individual basis (cooking or shopping for other people, care of people in hospitals / at home, accompany people for walk and etc.).

Social interactions - Social support

Help from others (to have someone on whom I can rely if necessary) - it is an opportunity to ask, if necessary, for help of relatives, friends or neighbors (that is, any kind of help, whether moral, material or financial).

Methodical notes - Economic and physical safety

Economic security

Arrears related to mortgage or rental payments, utility bills or hire purchases - referred to period for last 12 months, i.e. household was not able for reason of financial difficulties to pay regular instalments on time:

• for mortgage and/or rental payments connected with main dwelling,
• for utility bills as for example heating, electricity, gas or water related to main dwelling,
• for hire purchase or other loans ( for instance for decoration, maintenance, refurbishment, dwelling, housing equipment, holiday etc.).

Physical safety - Criminality

The indicator on crime, violence or vandalism - in the area refers to the percentage of total population who face the problem of crime, violence or vandalism in the local area.

Methodological notes - Governance and basic rights

Trust in institutions and public services

Trust in political, legal system and the police - it refers to opinion/feeling of respondent in general. The term political system refers to a complete set of institutions, interest groups (e.g. political parties, trade unions), the relations among those institutions and the political norms and that govern their functions. The term legal system refers to the entire system for interpreting and enforcing the laws but not to a specific legal entity within the country. Trust in the legal system is supposed to measure, for example opinions and attitudes towards the effectiveness and efficiency of the institutions such as the courts, the fairness of its procedures and decisions, and the extent to which the sentences given out reflect the values and desires of citizens. The term police refers to the police as an institution.

Discrimination and equal opportunities

The unadjusted difference in the gender pay gap represents the difference between average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees and of female paid employees, expressed as a percentage of average gross hourly earnings of male paid employees. Gross income is wages or salary paid directly to the employee before the deduction of income tax and contributions to the social security system.

Active citizenship

Participation in activities of political parties or trade unions includes participation in meetings connected with those activities. Excludes formal participation in strikes (demonstration).

Methodical notes - Natural and living environment

Pollution (including noise)

Pollution, grime or other environment problems - smoke, dust, unpleasant smells, polluted water etc. – related to immediate proximity of household seat.

Methodological notes - Overall life satisfaction

Life satisfaction

Overall life satisfaction -it expresses respondent´s evaluation or assessment of his/her life taken as a whole. The term life covers all areas of human life at a particular place and time. It refers to the respondent's opinion/feeling about the degree of satisfaction with his/her life, i.e. it focuses on how people are feeling at a particular point in time (these days). The intent is not to obtain the current emotional state of the respondent, but to make a reflective judgment on his/ her level of satisfaction.

Positive affects

Being happy - frequency over the past four weeks - it refers to self-assessment of emotions with the aim at psychological measurement of well-being. It is a feeling of respondent during the last four weeks.

Meaning and purpose of life

Assessing whether life is worthwhile - it refers to the opinion/feeling of the respondent on the meaning of life (what makes his/her life and the existence of an important and meaningful), which is not associated with any particular area of life, but rather it focuses on life in general. In the wider context it refers to values and meaning of life, important life goals, etc.