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Mortality rates in the Czech Republic have declined by around one seventh in the last ten years. Those who do die, tend to pass at an older age than in previous decades, according to data presented by the Czech Statistics Office on Wednesday. However, the main causes of death - heart and vascular diseases – remain the same, being responsible for two thirds of the 112,920 deaths last year. Cancer, mainly of the lungs, is another recurrent cause of death.

According to Terezie Štyglerová from the Czech Statistics Office, the top three causes of death are the same for men and women. However, men are more likely to die from accidents, while for women the other main causes of death are Alzheimers, other types of dementia and diabetes.

The authorities in Prague 3 are offering students cheap accommodation in municipal properties in exchange for spending time with the residents of old folks’ homes, Novinky.cz reported on Sunday. The programme comes partly in response to the fact that student dormitories are overcrowded and commercial rents have skyrocketed in the city.

The students are required to spend 30 hours a month with seniors under the scheme. Prague 3 deputy mayor Ondřej Rut said it should bring together the generations and offer both fresh perspectives.

One-fifth of seniors who contracted pneumococcus last year succumbed to the disease, according to the National Institute of Public Health data.

Pneumococcus can lead to severe pneumonia and dangerous inflammations, including meningitis. Of 481 people who contracted it last year, 256 were over 65 in age. In total, 84 people died, including one child.

The time spent by Czechs in retirement on average has increased by nearly four years and four months since 2000, and now stands at about 24 years and three months, according to an annual study by the Czech Social Security Administration.

The main reason is that Czechs are living longer. At the time of the Velvet Revolution, the life expectancy for a Czech man was 68, eight years lower than today at 76. In the last year of Communism, a Czech woman could expect to live to 75.5, compared to 82 now.

At the turn of the millennium, the average retirement pension was paid for nearly 20 years – 16 years and 10 months for men and 22 years and nine months for women. In 1990, the average pension was paid for 16 years, up from 11 years in 1970.

Older people are the most vulnerable and targeted group in the Czech Republic when it comes to online disinformation, says Jaroslav Valůch. He is the head of the media education programme at Transitions Online, which runs media literacy courses around the country in cooperation with Elpida, a pro-seniors organisation. When Valůch visited our studios the conversation took in the specific kinds of fake news older Czechs encounter, how disinformation is poisoning intergenerational relations – and much more besides.

Czech society has changed dramatically since 1989, and not only politically. Czechs are living longer and having fewer children, but while the population is aging it is not declining, thanks to an influx of immigrants. These are among some of the more striking findings of the Czech Statistical Office.

At the time of the Velvet Revolution, the life expectancy for a Czech man was 68, eight years lower than today at 76. In the last year of Communism, a Czech woman could expect to live to 75.5, compared to 82 now.

Seniors now account for nearly 20 percent of the population, up from 13 percent in 1989. Meanwhile, children under the age of 15 make up 16 percent of the population, down from 22 percent three decades ago.

The Czech Republic experienced a baby boom around 2008, when the so-called Husák's children generation of the 1970s, began having children of their own. Even so, the annual birth rate reached a maximum of 120,000. In recent years, it has been around 114,000.

At the time of the Velvet Revolution, there were 3.4 foreigners for every 1,000 Czechs compared to 53 today. Thirty years ago, one in 294 residents were born abroad, compared to one in 19 today.

As elsewhere in the developed world, the average life expectancy for Czech men and women has been growing, but the sad news is that they are not spending their old age in good health. The Czech Health Ministry is ringing alarm bells and focussing on campaigns that will raise awareness of the health risks responsible for serious illnesses in the aging population.

Approximately 190,000 Czech pensioners are living under the poverty line, with pensions under 10,000 crowns a month, according to data released by the Czech Social Administration Office.

60,000 thousand pensioners are having to make do with pensions under 8,000 crowns a month.

The poverty line last year was 11,963 crowns per month for individuals living alone. This year it is expected to be higher.

The average old age pension last year was 13,377 crown a month, with men receiving an average pension of 14,697crowns a month and women receiving an average pension of 12,182 crowns a month.

Czech travel agencies have noted a steady rise in clients over the age of sixty, reflecting increased spending power among seniors looking to enjoy – in many cases –a long overdue foreign holiday. With the population rapidly ageing, this demographic will be an ever-greater part of agencies’ clientele. And a demanding one, at that.

The oldest citizen of the Czech Republic, Marie Schwarzová of Brno, celebrated her 109th birthday on Wednesday.

According to a district mayor, who attended a ceremony in her honour and asked if she had any birthday wishes, Mrs Schwarzová said she would like a linden tree on her street to be trimmed so as to allow more sunlight into her home.

Mrs Schwarzová, a former teacher and amateur actress, was born in Brno in 1910, when it was still part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.