Analysis of spatial diversity in the socio-economic development of Polish voivodeships in 2005–2017

Abstract

The main goal of the article is to analyse and evaluate the degree of diversification in the socio- -economic development of Polish voivodeships in the period 2005–2017. The basis of the research comprises data from the Central Statistical Office (Local Databank) databases. The analysis included three aspects of regional development: economic, social and infrastructure potential. There are eight areas that characterise these development aspects, which are: incomes of the population, labour market, health and health care, education, culture, transport and road infrastructure, business entities and investments as well as tourism development. Based on selected diagnostic variables describing each field, values for a synthetic development measure have been determined for individual voivodeships and for selected years over the examined time period. The synthetic measure was calculated according to the Hellwig’s method of linear ordering of objects (method of taxonomic measure of development with constant pattern). The method resulted in rankings being set for the voivodeships in the analysed years and the grouping of voivodeships according to their achieved level of development. In general, the socio-economic situation of Poland in 2017 improved compared to previous years. The study confirmed the existence of considerable disparities in the development of voivodeships and the persistent large spatial differentiation of the level of development between the eastern and western regions of the country. Despite the increases in the maximum and average values of the synthetic measure of development in the analysed years, the distance between the regions with the highest and the lowest levels of development showed no decrease in 2017 compared to 2005 and 2010.