ZRÓŻNICOWANIE POZIOMU ROZWOJU SPOŁECZNO-GOSPODARCZEGO NA OBSZARZE WOJEWÓDZTWA WIELKOPOLSKIEGO

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to establish areas in the province of Wielkopolska with the highest and lowest level of socio-economic development as well as to determine whether these areas are uniform with respect to the elements of the level of development. The author approaches this problem from the perspective of a subregion and a district. The empirical material for this study was based on the report on socio-economic development in Wielkopolska published by Statistical Office in Poznań in 2001. In general, the analyzed parameters indicate a relatively low level of socio-economic development of the district. Synthetic criteria of district development never exceeded a half of their maximum value. Districts differed widely with respect to the level of investment outlays, but they were much more uniform with respect to the number of business entities and the unemployment rate. Moderate diversification was observed between the districts with respect to the number of recorded crimes. Subregions of Piła, Poznań and Kalisz as groups of districts are non-uniform with respect to the analyzed parameters. Each of the subregions includes districts of both relatively high and low position in the general ranking calculated with the synthetic measure of district development. The subregion of Konin, on the other hand, comprises highly uniform but low-ranked districts. Variables that influenced the level of synthetic measures of district development were, in the decreasing order of importance, the unemployment rate, the number of business entities and investment outlays per capita. The only factor that did not have a statistically significant influence on the level of synthetic measures of district development was the crime rate.