The Czech Statistics Office reported that Prague’s population as of the beginning of 2019 was 1.3 milion, but a study based on data from Czech mobile phone networks has revealed that the number is closer to 1,550,000. Furthermore, when tourists and commuters from outside Prague are added to the count, the city tends to have around 1.75 million people in it each day. These new figures are playing havoc with the calculations made previously by city planners, who had counted on Prague hitting 1.4 million residents only in 2030. But they also go some way to explaining why residential prices in the city have exploded. The assumption, according to an extensive article in aktualne.cz, was that there were 2.1 residents per flat in the capital. The reality is that there are more like 2.49. The reason that the numbers have been so inaccurate for so long is that many people are registered in addresses outside of Prague, but in reality they live in it. It means that the pace of residential construction has slowed in recent years, while demand has been growing faster than realized.
