SYNTHETIC MEASURE OF RURAL AREA ATTRACTIVENESS FOR LIVING , WORKING AND BUSINESS ACTIVITIES – CONCEPT ANALYSIS AND STATISTICAL EVALUATION

Abstract

The aim of writing the article was to present a concept of constructing a synthetic measure which defines the attractiveness of rural areas as a place to live, work and run business activities. The proposed measure was also empirically verified in the context of time and space. Material comprised data concerning 2,172 rural and urban-rural municipalities, in 2013, 2014 and 2017, following the territorial division of Poland into voivodeships. The data was obtained from the Local Data Bank at the Central Statistical Office (GUS). In the course of the study, for the purpose of constructing the measure, the author used 15 diagnostic variables, describing various functions of rural areas. The variables underwent normalization in order to make them comparable. The author originally chose five methods of normalization and one for further analysis, which caused the smallest dispersion of results. To select it, a variance analysis was conducted. The resulting synthetic measure of rural area attractiveness was verified empirically, in the context of time and space, which confirmed its diagnostic usability and indicated the temporally changeable diversity of Poland’s territory, as a system of voivodeships with regard to their attractiveness as places to live, work and run business activities.