Evaluation of the level of social development of poviats in Małopolskie Voivodship with the use of a dynamic synthetic measure

Abstract

The level of social development of territorial units in Poland is an important topic in the context of the pursued policy to equalise the differences in regional development. Nowadays, spatial disproportions in development are considered one of the main social problems also in Małopolskie Voivodship. The purpose of the study described in the article involves the comparison of changes in the level of social development in the poviats of Małopolskie Voivodship in the period of 2010–2019 by means of a dynamic synthetic measure. The situation of these poviats was evaluated based on data provided by the Local Data Bank of Statistics Poland, describing 10 selected diagnostic features relating to the following areas: the demographic situation, the labour market, education, standard of living and health protection of the inhabitants. The method of linear ordering of multidimensional objects in a dynamic approach was applied. The volume of changes in the level of development of the poviats was determined on the basis of a dynamic synthetic measure. The results of the study indicate that in all of the poviats, a significant decline was observed in the value of the synthetic measure describing the demographic situation and education. On the other hand, the positive aspect is that in all of the poviats the value of the synthetic measure relating to the labour market, living conditions and health protection of the population increased significantly. Consequently, the disproportions between the poviats in the analysed period deepened in terms of the demographic situation and education, whereas the differences in the level of development decreased in the case of the labour market, living conditions and health protection of the population.