Deagrarisation as a Determinant of Living Standards in Rural Areas of European Union Countries

Abstract

The paper deals with the issue of living standards being compared in spatial layouts across the EU countries in 2010–2019. The situation in rural areas is related to urban ones allowing for analysis of spatial inequality in terms of standard of living across the member states. The aim of the paper includes not only comparisons of standard of living, but also identification of reasons of differences between the countries and verification of a role of agriculture in shaping the rural standard of living. The EU economies are clustered based on Ward method and ranked according to aggregate measures of the relative living standards created with a usage of Hellwig method. In addition to a compound measure of the living standards, they have been assessed in two dimensions: income (ID), and housing and environment (HED). Furthermore, the study searches for an explanation of differences in the relative living standards and tests whether deagrarisation may be identified as their determinant. It uses ANOVA and estimates linear OLS regression models. It is concluded that the standard of living appears to be more favourable for rural inhabitants than for city dwellers, especially with respect to the features of surroundings, while it is decreased by the income characteristics. Furthermore, the results indicate that the relative living standards of rural inhabitants are lower in more agrarian economies. The observed deagrarisation appears as a factor positively influencing the standard of living in its income dimension.