Survey: Czechs trust their municipalities most, Zlín Region named the safest

Ahead of the municipal elections on 9–10 October, the MNForce agency conducted a survey of a thousand respondents for Deník.cz about life in Czech towns and villages — of which there are more than 6,250 across the country. The survey found that most Czechs have no desire to move, though one in five is considering a change of residence, whether to another Czech town or abroad.

Young people aged 18–29 are the most open to change: 28% of them are planning to relocate, and another 43% are weighing the idea. Among those over 60, the picture is reversed — 58% say they will definitely stay put, while only 14% are willing to leave. A separate concern is the brain drain of educated professionals: according to the survey, nearly 12% of Czechs with university degrees are ready to leave the country. Matouš Glanc, director of Czexpats in Science, called this "a symptom of stagnation," pointing to opaque hiring competitions, nepotism, and the practice of "academic inbreeding," where positions go only to a university's own graduates. The survey found that only about 10% of scientists working abroad are willing to return, and that willingness declines further the longer they live abroad and once they have children.

Where Czechs feel safest

Four out of five respondents said they would recommend their hometown to friends, and in cities with populations over 100,000, that figure rises to almost 88%. A sense of safety remains the key factor in satisfaction: according to the survey, more than 80% of Czechs feel safe or fairly safe in their town or village, with the highest levels recorded in villages of under 5,000 residents and the lowest in mid-sized cities of 20,000–100,000 people.

Among the regions, residents of the Zlín Region feel safest — a finding backed up by official statistics. According to Czech police data and the "Obce v datech" project, the regional capital Zlín leads among comparable major Czech cities with about 105 registered crimes per 10,000 residents, the lowest crime rate in its category. Its clearance rate stands at around 62%, above the national average. Pavel Janík, deputy head of Zlín's municipal police, attributes this success to close cooperation between municipal and state police, as well as systematic preventive work with children, teenagers, and the elderly — covering everything from road safety rules to protection against cyberbullying and domestic violence.

Finances and communication with authorities

Assessing the transparency of municipal finances proves trickier: between 37% and 42% of respondents, depending on the size of their town, said they found it hard to judge how honestly their local administration manages its budget. Confidence in transparency is highest in the smallest villages, where residents personally know the mayor and councillors. Anyone wishing to check their municipality's finances can do so for free through the Finance Ministry's Monitor application, simply by entering the town's name or its tax ID number.

Nearly 69% of respondents are satisfied with how their town hall keeps citizens informed, about a quarter are dissatisfied, and roughly 7% show no interest at all in local government communication via websites, notice boards, or municipal bulletins. Increasingly, municipalities are turning to social media and messaging apps to send news and alerts directly to residents.

Around Prague, based on reporting by denik.cz