Socio-economic Development of Communes in the West Pomeranian Voivodeship

Abstract

In recent years Poland has undergone a dynamic socio-economic development, which has not been the same in all territorial units of the country. The level of development of individual communes in the Zachodniopomorskie (West Pomeranian) Voivodeship was examined on the basis of the data on public finances, municipal and housing economy, health protection, the environment, the labour market, education and entrepreneurship. Communes were divided into groups with a similar level of socio-economic development with the use of statistical methods (k-means method and discriminant analysis). Variables regarding the number of business entities, the average number of people per one flat and the budgetary income of communes per capita had a decisive impact on the study of the level of development of communes in the Zachodniopomorskie Voivodeship. The purpose of this work is to show the diversity of socio-economic development of communes in the voivodeship according to selected features. The knowledge of the level of this development may help local government bodies in creating the socio-economic policy of the analyzed areas.