Czechia

Responding to challenges and existing knowledge gaps facing the cooperative movement, this mapping research seeks to provide exhaustive information on cooperatives around the world.

This is achieved through a process jointly conducted by the ICA and its four regional offices – Cooperatives of the Americas, Cooperatives Europe, ICA Africa, and ICA Asia-Pacific – using a common methodology, designed with the support of external experts from the European Research Institute on Cooperative and Social Enterprises (Euricse).

Each office collected the input of ICA members present in the countries within its geographic area, by using a common questionnaire, and completing it with relevant national statistics, in order to obtain a picture of the national situation. As a result, the data above is collected following two strategies: 1) a survey targeting ICA cooperative members 2) collecting national statistics already available in the country. The numbers above provide data from ICA members on the number of cooperatives, as well as the number of cooperative employees and memberships in the country. More methodological information is available in the full report. In Czechia, the data is collected for the reference year 2016.

Mapping out cooperatives in each country provides a more precise picture of the cooperative context at national and regional levels, enhances the movement's visibility, networking, partnerships opportunities, as well as advocacy, and empowers cooperators by providing tools for positive change.

This webpage presents a snapshot of the research results for the Czechia. For more information and the full research results, you can download the full report and highlights using the links above.

Czechia has been home to a strong cooperative sector since the late 19th century. Its emergence has been dated as early as 1847, with the founding of the ‘Association of Foodstuffs and Savings’ in Prague. The late 19th and the beginning of the 20th century was considered a strong period of growth for cooperatives in Europe and today’s Czechia. The sector arguably blossomed, in particular during the 20 peacetime years between 1918 and 1938. A large number of cooperatives functioned in a variety of sectors, particularly in housing and banking, with Raiffeisen credit cooperatives, known as kampelicka, named after the Czech economist František Cyril Kampelík.

Today, after over 170 years of cooperative history in Czechia, the sector develops mostly from a bottom-up approach, and in 2016 there were 14 466 registered cooperatives in the country, based on data from the national statistical office.

Czechia counts 1 ICA member organisation, the Cooperative Association of the Czech Republic (CACR) – Družstevní Asociace České Republiky (DAČR) in Czech.

CACR, which has the status of full ICA member, is the national apex organisation for Czech and Moravian co-operatives, who they represent in public and abroad. Together with its member organisations cooperating with the government, various ministries and representative institutions, promotes the interests and needs of cooperatives, helping to round development of the cooperative movement in the present and in coming years.

In Czechia, the Mapping questionnaire, was distributed to, and completed by 1 ICA member organisation in the country. The data below was gathered through compiling the member’s replies to a common questionnaire. Data collected was for the reference year 2016.

CACR represents 1243 cooperatives in the country, with a total number of memberships of 141 190, and a total number of 50 198 employees. For further information, readers are invited to download the full report and country highlights, available by clicking the links above.