Territorial patterns of socio-economic development in the Romanian Danube valley

Abstract

The territorial patterns of socio-economic development in the Romanian Danube Valley (micro-scale, LAU2) are identified in this paper by using the complex index of development (INDEV). The paper presents the computation of secondary indexes reflecting the main aspects of socio-economic development (dwellings, public utilities infrastructure, health, employment, demography, education and local economy). The territorial distribution of the secondary indexes and the complex index of development values emphasized a difference between the rural and urban administrative units, the rural areas shaping the low and very low pattern of socio-economic development and the towns and municipals representing the average pattern of socio-economic development. The complex index of territorial disparities, computed by the variant of the relative distances ranking method (using as baseline the national average value of each statistical indicator selected), shows the overwhelming predominance of socio-economic development pattern below the Romanian