Mathematics in Education, Research and Applications (MERAA), 2023(9), 2

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Published online 2024-09-10
DOI:https://doi.org/10.15414/meraa.2023.09.02.51-61

Multivariate analysis of socio-economic condition of new EU members NUTS-2 regions: Case study

Mária Májek, Michaela Soóki
Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra, Slovakia

Article Fulltext (PDF), pp. 51–61: The paper aims to provide a comparative analysis of NUTS-2 regions in the new EU member states from the point of socio-economic condition. We assess 61 NUTS-2 regions of new EU members based on 8 socio-economic indicators. Secondary data are obtained from the public databases of Faostat and Eurostat in the period of 2021-2022 and standardized to the same direction of development. The findings indicate that when it comes to investments and GDP, the majority of the examined regions fall short of the EU, but the overall employment and unemployment rates are at least average than EU. Slovenia and the V4 regions perform better than the EU average on indicators of social exclusion and poverty. The dimension in the database was decreased through factor analysis after varimax rotation, resulting in the reduction of the eight original indicators to two factors. Using them, the regions were typologized into four groups according to the outcomes of Ward's cluster analysis approach. The best results are achieved by the first group, which included 9 regions of the capitals of the new member countries. The largest group is the second cluster, which includes 23 regions located in the western part of the V4 countries and one northern region of Romania. The third cluster includes 18 regions mainly located in the eastern part. The last cluster consists of 11 regions, mainly of Bulgaria, Romania, together with Eastern Slovakia, Latvia, and one region of Lithuania. The given group had the worst socio-economic situation on average compared to other clusters.; Keywords: society, economy, sustainability, development, NUTS-2; JEL Classification: C10, H00