Regional differentiation of households in the context of a subjective assessment of the level of income

Abstract

One of the factors affecting the stratification and diversity of living conditions of the population is the level of income of the population. Income levels indicate inequalities that are inevitable and even necessary to some extent. They are part of the incentive mechanisms in consumer behaviour. The aim of the article was to show, by grouping voivodships, the differences in the assessment of the subjective level of household income. Households participating in the Household Budget Survey conducted by the Polish Central Statistical Office reported the amount of income (in PLN) allowing (in their assessment) to recognize the given income as: very weak, insufficient, barely sufficient, good and very good. The specified values of the centroids made it possible to organize voivodships in Poland due to the level of analysed features and identification of groups in which there are households with similar expectations and a subjective assessment of the economic situation. Based on the analysis, it can be concluded that in terms of subjective assessments of the level of income obtained by households there are stratifications in the individual groups of voivodships. The analysis of the diversity of income level assessments was conducted in a spatial section (diversification of the phenomenon by voivodships). The SOM-Kohonen method was used for the analysis.