Clustering of the Italian Regions Based on Their Equitable and Sustainable Well-Being Indicators: A Three-Way Approach

Abstract

The aim of this study is to provide an analysis of the Italian regions according to their equitable and sustainable well-being indicators pertaining to several economic, social and environmental domains with reference to the year 2017, in order to identify groups of homogeneous regions taking into account the heterogeneity of the domains. In particular, the regions are grouped into root clusters, which are consistent across domains, and specific clusters, which vary with domains. The partitions are obtained using the ROOT CLUStering (ROOTCLUS) model for three-way proximity data. The results show that in the well-known opposition between northern and southern Italian territories, some regions located in the Central and Southern Italy have a diversified behaviour with respect to some domains.