Public Health, Quality of Life and Energy Consumption in Ukraine’s Regions

Abstract

With the methods of mathematical analysis for five indicators, including the specific consumption of primary energy resources, the specific output of the gross regional product, the years of potential life lost due to premature death, the share of industry in fuel consumption, the number of people, the regions of Ukraine were divided into five clusters. The indicator of the lost years of potential life is used as a criterion for the quality of life: the lower its value, the higher the level of quality of life. The volume of gross regional product is proposed to be calculated in Big Macs, by analogy with the method proposed by ‘The Economist’ magazine to recalculate national indicators for purchasing power parity. It was established that the regions included in the third cluster, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk, with the largest primary energy consumption per person, and seven regions from the second cluster, characterized by relatively low energy consumption, have a statistically insignificant difference in the number of years of potential life lost, the largest in the sample. The revealed feature can be explained by the fact that regions from the second cluster do not consume enough primary energy resources, while regions from the third cluster are under negative environmental impact and, moreover, are forced to spend an overwhelming amount of energy resources to maintain a powerful industrial sector. So, in 2011, the economic activity of the Dnipropetrovsk region led to the formation of 62% of waste from the national volume, the share of the Donetsk region was 14%. The share of industry in the consumption of fuel resources in the Donetsk region, according to statistics is 98%. The obtained results indicate a significant impact of energy consumption on indicators of public health and the quality of life of the population of the Ukrainian regions. The influence of the nomenclature of energy carriers, the quantity and composition of waste resulting from economic activity require a detailed study in the context of establishing the living standards of the population. Keywords public health, quality of life, energy consumption, regions, clusters.