Unveiling socio-economic inequalities and spatial disparities across districts in Meghalaya: insights from PCA, Moran’s I and LISA

Generally, econometric studies on socio-economic inequalities consider regions as independent entities, ignoring the likely possibility of spatial interaction between them. This interaction may cause spatial dependency or clustering, which is referred to as spatial autocorrelation. This paper analyses for the first time, the spatial clustering of income, income inequality, education, human development, and growth by employing spatial exploratory data analysis (ESDA) techniques to data on 98 Pakistani districts. By detecting outliers and clusters, ESDA allows policy makers to focus on the geography of socio-economic regional characteristics. Global and local measures of spatial autocorrelation have been computed using the Moran‘s I and the Geary‘s C index to obtain estimates of the spatial autocorrelation of spatial disparities across districts. The overall finding is that the distribution of district wise income inequality, income, education attainment, growth, and development levels, exhibits a significant tendency for socio-economic inequalities and human development levels to cluster in Pakistan (i.e. the presence of spatial autocorrelation is confirmed). Keywords: Pakistan, Spatial Effects, Spatial Exploratory Analysis, Spatial Disparities, Income Inequality, Education Inequality, Spatial Autocorrelation

How magnitude of PM2.5 exposure disparities have evolved across Chinese urban-rural population during 2010–2019

Unequal healthcare facility distributions remain a critical concern in South Korea, where medical resources are disproportionately concentrated in metropolitan areas, leading to disparities in the availability of services between regions. These spatial disparities are also influenced by broader contextual factors such as socioeconomic inequality and transportation infrastructure, which interact with access to care. Focusing on the spacial dimension of these disparities, this study investigates the spatial distribution of public and private medical facilities by analyzing their allocation patterns to identify underlying principles associated with these distributional trends, using a cost optimization approach rooted in statistical physics. By employing concentration index (), we quantify regional inequalities in general hospitals and clinics. Additionally, using scaling exponents, we aim to understand the principles underlying the distributional differences between public and private healthcare facilities and examine whether these differences vary across medical specialties. Our findings reveal that private hospitals and clinics exhibit stronger correlations with population density, reflecting commercial-like allocation patterns, while public institutions demonstrate more even spatial distributions. However, some essential medical specialties, including emergency medicine, pediatrics, and obstetrics and gynecology, are sparsely distributed in public sectors. Furthermore, temporal scaling exponent analysis suggests that private medical institutions are gradually intensifying their commercial characteristics, potentially exacerbating future disparities. These results provide a comprehensive understanding of the distribution patterns of healthcare facilities across regions and establishment types, while uncovering the underlying principles that shape these patterns based on medical specialties, providing valuable insights to inform future resource allocation strategies in the health sector.

Understanding local level impact of socio-economic and spatial disparities on health outcomes is crucial for informing effective public health interventions. This study examines the association between socio-economic factors, centrality, and premature mortality—measured as years of life lost (YLLs)—across Norwegian municipalities. We conducted an ecological, cross-sectional registry-based study across municipalities and districts, each with populations exceeding 1000 as of 1 January 2019. Data on mortality, demographics, education, income, and centrality were sourced from Statistics Norway. All-cause YLLs were calculated by multiplying age-specific mortality numbers by aspirational life expectancy from the Global Burden of Disease 2019 life tables. Municipalities were divided into quartiles based on a composite socio-economic position (SEP) score that integrated education and income, and grouped into centrality categories. Mixed-effects negative binomial regression models, crude and adjusted for age categories and sex, evaluated both relative and absolute associations. The lowest SEP quartile, assessed with a composite SEP score, had a 15% higher YLL rate compared to the highest quartile [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.07–1.24], amounting to an absolute difference of 2127 YLLs per 100 000 population. Similarly, the least central quartile exhibited a 15% higher YLL rate compared to the most central one (IRR = 1.15; 95% CI = 1.09–1.21), translating to an absolute difference of 2057 YLLs per 100 000 population. There are substantial inequalities in premature mortality across Norwegian municipalities, strongly linked to municipal SEP and centrality.

Exclusionary school discipline practices, such as suspension and expulsion, disproportionately affect students of color and those from lower socioeconomic backgrounds, perpetuating racial and socioeconomic inequalities in educational outcomes. Despite evidence highlighting the ineffectiveness and harm caused by these practices, many schools continue to rely on them as responses to student misbehavior. This study investigates these disparities in high school discipline through the lens of social disorganization theory, examining how neighborhood and school characteristics shape disciplinary actions. Data from the Pennsylvania Department of Education and AreaVibes were analyzed using multiple regression and ANOVA. Results indicate that schools with at least 50% minority students use exclusionary discipline more frequently. Higher attendance rates, advanced placement courses, and better academic scores correlate with fewer disciplinary actions. The findings highlight the need to address implicit bias, systemic inequalities in discipline, and community engagement to create equitable learning environments.

Urban greening is increasingly promoted as a means to achieve sustainable and inclusive development. However, it remains unclear whether the expansion of green infrastructure reduces spatial and socioeconomic inequalities or reinforces them. This study examines the long-term dynamics of green space exposure in 287 Chinese cities from 2000 to 2020 using geospatial and statistical data. While median green coverage and exposure increased by 126% and 135%, spatial disparities also grew. Eastern cities consistently showed higher levels of exposure, and national-level improvements did not translate into proportional narrowing of interregional gaps. Granger causality tests indicate a bidirectional relationship between economic growth and green exposure at the national level. This relationship varies across regions. Cities in the east, center, and northeast exhibit strong mutual effects, while other regions show weaker or unidirectional linkages. In North China, economic development and green exposure are entirely disconnected. These differences have led to divergent patterns in exposure equity. Despite a 44% national decline in the Gini index, disparities persisted, most notably in northeastern China. The results suggest that area-based greening targets are insufficient to address inequality. Planning strategies that consider population exposure and regional conditions are needed to improve the inclusiveness of urban greening. This study offers evidence for designing more equitable greening approaches in rapidly urbanizing areas.

How do the attempts for reaching global competitiveness affect the social and spatial changes in city regions? Is it possible to reconcile competitiveness with cohesion, or will it increase the social and spatial disparities? The above two questions have been important to understand the changing structures of city regions and there appear different views on the conceptual relations between competitiveness and social cohesion. Most of the theoretical and empirical studies emphasize the deterioration of social cohesion and spatialisation of inequalities. The common assumption of the debates is that increasing cohesion will result in economic success as well. This chapter claims that the numbers of studies that go beyond these types of overgeneralisation and instead give the details of connections between policies and practice for competitiveness and social change are still limited. The chapter has a number of aims. Firstly, it aims to discuss the consequences of increasing competitiveness (as a result of the endogenous dynamics as well as several policies and projects) on the “socio-spatial cohesion”. Secondly, the chapter contributes to the existing debate findings of the empirical studies on the three main metropolitan regions of Turkey. The findings are the outcome of the detailed analysis on the spatialisation of socio-economic (in)equalities in city regions, with the help of data various sets of data on neighbourhood level.

Area-based socioeconomic inequalities in cervical cancer screening coverage in France.

BackgroundPrevious research suggests that unhealthy community food environments around schools contribute to unhealthy eating habits and negative health outcomes among the youth. However, little is known about how socioeconomic inequalities in those community food environments are associated with food deserts and food swamps across schools’ neighborhoods.MethodsAn ecological study was carried out in all 3,159 public and private schools in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Three measures of socioeconomic inequality were evaluated: per capita income, segregation index and deprivation index. The community school food environment was analyzed by metrics of food swamps and food deserts.ResultsFood deserts and food swamps were simultaneously more prevalent in neighborhoods of the lowest income, high deprivation, and high segregation. Spatial socioeconomic disparities at the neighborhoods of schools were associated with food deserts and food swamps in Rio de Janeiro.ConclusionsOur results point to a spatial socioeconomic inequality of establishments that sell food around schools in a Brazilian metropolis, indicating that the areas of greatest deprivation of food services are also the areas with the worst socioeconomic characteristics.

This study examines access to rental housing in the metropolitan area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, linking it to socio-economic inequalities and the increasing precarization. In recent years, housing affordability has worsened due to rising rents, stagnant wages, and speculative dynamics—particularly those linked to tourism and platform-based economies. Drawing on official data from the State Reference System for Rental Housing Prices (SERPAVI) and income statistics at the census tract level, this research quantifies housing affordability and spatial disparities through indicators such as economic effort rates. The analysis identifies patterns of exclusion and urban fragmentation, showing that large sectors of the population—especially those earning the minimum age—face severe barriers to accessing adequate housing. The findings highlight the insufficiency of current public policies and propose the expansion of social rental housing and stricter rental market regulation as necessary steps to ensure fairer urban conditions.

Access to healthcare is a critical issue for global health systems. The objective of this study was to explore the determinants affecting access to health services and the disparities within a specific geographic context in Greece, focusing on rural populations. Factors affecting people's propensity to use health services, factors that facilitate use, and the need for health care were identified. Data analysis used both inferential and descriptive statistics. Geographical Information System is used to analyze, and present information related to spatially evolving phenomena. Disparities in access to health services were observed. The results indicate that socioeconomic factors are stronger predictors of health service use than need and demographic characteristics. This suggests socioeconomic inequalities and inequitable access to healthcare.

The expansionof higher educationobserved inBrazil inthe first decades of the 21st century takes place ina contradictory socioeconomic situation,inseparable fromthe characteristics of the country's insertioninthe capitalist world system.As inother peripheral countries,the selective and unequal presence of modernizing vectors fromthe country and abroad is at the basis of the enormous socioeconomic and spatial disparities that characterize Brazilian society (and which are proper to capitalist social formation). Thus,onthe one hand,we see a highdegree of development of private and state business productive forms and their technoscientific foundation,concomitant withthe growthof poverty.Hence,inthis second decade of the 21st century,we have the exclusionof 110 million Brazilians from the workforce employed in the formal sectors. This exclusionis translated intothe organizationof the territory,whichdevelops inclose connectionwiththe dynamics of capital inits various reconfigurations.The urbanizationprocess is emblematic of this link and has beena determinant inthe spatializationof socioeconomic inequalities inthe country.This situationmakes solutions based onthe expansionof these same productive forms (labor-intensive and labor-saving capital) in their economic and socio-spatial dimensions unviable. The solutions are indouble concertation.The university will participate as it has beensince the 1930s,intraining staff toguide state investments and resources toovercome the delay and recover, even partially, the levels of employment and salary for the skilled unemployed contingents (in2021,there were 15millioninaneconomically active populationof 30 million).Onthe other front,the university's technoscientific productiondoes not leverage solutions for the 110 millionpeople whoboost the popular circuits of the economy – “U berized (autonomous drivers)”,self-employed,womeninfamily domestic work, domestic workers, traditional and indigenous populations.

Equity in maternal health is critical to achieving Sustainable Development Goals and Universal Health Coverage. Unequal distribution of maternal health resources threatens access and outcomes, particularly in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs) like Iran. This study assesses spatial and socioeconomic inequalities in the availability of human and physical maternal health resources across Iranian provinces in 2023. This cross-sectional study analyzed data from 20 maternal health resource indicators collected in 2023 across all 31 provinces of Iran. Among these, 7 variables represented human resources and 13 represented physical resources. Data aggregation was performed at multiple levels, including provincial boundaries, geographic regions, deprivation categories, and classification of provinces as border or central, to comprehensively assess spatial and socioeconomic disparities. Composite indices for human and physical resources were constructed using min-max normalization followed by averaging relevant variables. Inequality was quantified using the Gini coefficient across provinces and data processing and statistical computations were performed using R software. Findings reveal generally moderate inequalities in maternal health resource distribution (Gini mostly below 0.5) with advantaged and border provinces showing higher resource availability. Specialized facilities and supervisory staff remain concentrated in select regions, while frontline workers show more equitable distribution. The concentration of border‑specific facilities in a limited number of provinces explains part of the observed regional disparities. While important progress has been made in expanding maternal health services, spatial and socioeconomic inequities in the distribution of resources persist across provinces in Iran. Policy efforts should prioritize equity-oriented resource allocation, strengthen services in deprived provinces, and implement continuous inequality monitoring to support more equitable maternal health outcomes.

Exploring spatial heterogeneity and environmental injustices in exposure to flood hazards using geographically weighted regression

Early-onset Parkinson's disease (EOPD), defined as Parkinson's disease with onset between ages 21 and 50 years, profoundly impairs young individuals' productivity and mental health, imposing substantial economic and familial burdens. However, comprehensive global epidemiological data remain limited. This study aimed to assess the worldwide burden, key drivers, and projected trends of EOPD. Using Global Burden of Disease Study 2021 data, we examined incidence, prevalence, deaths, disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), and age-standardised rates(ASRs) for EOPD from 1990 to 2021, stratified by sex, age, region, country, and socio-demographic index (SDI). Temporal trends were evaluated with estimated annual percentage changes (EAPC); SDI associations via Spearman's correlation; inequalities via slope index of inequality(SII) and concentration index(CI); drivers via decomposition analysis; and future projections via Bayesian age-period-cohort(BAPC) models with integrated nested Laplace approximation. From 1990 to 2021, the global burden of EOPD increased substantially: in 2021, incident cases reached 81,047 (95% UI: 48,162-122,328), prevalent cases 483,872 (95% UI: 328,862-682,509), deaths 2,246 (95% UI: 1,995-2,496), and DALYs 180,325 (95% UI: 145,990-225,031)-representing 2.9-, 2.5-, 1.7-, and 1.9-fold increases from 1990, respectively. ASIR (EAPC 1.42%, 95% CI: 1.26-1.58) and ASPR (EAPC 1.09%, 95% CI: 1.02-1.16) increased; ASMR declined (EAPC - 0.42%, 95% CI: -0.45 to - 0.39), driven largely by middle- and high-middle-SDI regions; ASDR remained stable. Males exhibited higher burden, particularly for deaths and DALYs. Burden was stable in patients aged ≤ 34 years; absolute numbers peaked in middle-SDI regions, East Asia, and South Asia, with the highest ASRs in middle- and high-middle-SDI regions and Andean Latin America. Socioeconomic inequities persisted, with modest widening for incidence and prevalence. Decomposition attributed rises in morbidity primarily to epidemiological changes and population growth, and rises in mortality and DALYs to population growth and ageing, with marked SDI heterogeneity. Projections to 2036 forecast continued absolute increases, stabilising incidence and prevalence rates, and declining mortality and DALY rates. The global burden of EOPD continues to rise, accompanied by notable spatial and demographic disparities. Drivers of burden changes vary significantly across regions and are closely associated with the SDI. Targeted policy interventions and resource allocation are required to address these challenges effectively.