Budget expenditure of voivodeship cities and the quality of life of their inhabitants

Abstract

The study presents the definition and research aspects of quality of life, an interdisciplinary category that arouses widespread interest among representatives of various scientific disciplines as well as state and local government institutions. The main purpose of the work was to examine the relationship between the level of budgetary expenses of a voivodeship city and the quality of life of its inhabitants. To determine the objective quality of life, quantitative and valuable indicators were used in the field of: technical infrastructure, labour market, health protection, social welfare, public education / pro-family policy and culture, the level of which depends on the expenditure of local authorities. Based on data from the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office, a multidimensional comparative analysis of voivodeship cities was carried out. Based on the selected diagnostic variables, a synthetic Perkal index was determined for individual provincial cities in 2019. The method used allowed the ranking of provincial cities to be determined in the analysed period of time and them to be grouped according to the level of quality of life achieved in four typological groups. The conducted research confirmed the existence of significant disproportions in the level of the quality of life of inhabitants of particular voivodeship cities. It was also found that with an increase in budgetary expenditure per capita, the level of quality of life may improve.