CLASSIFICATION OF THE EUROPEAN UNION COUNTRIES WITH RESPECT TO THE STANDARDS OF LIVING

Abstract

The study evaluates the spatial differentiation in the structure of the standards of living in the European Union countries. Selected measures that represent, in an objective manner, the needs of an average resident of any EU member were analysed in detail. Those included: infant mortality, share of the pre-productive population, unemployment rate, accessibility of information and communications technologies, level of schooling, healthcare accessibility, and crime level. The basic research method used was the Ward’s minimum variance procedure. In studied years, the countries with the highest standards of living included Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Denmark, Netherlands, Finland and Sweden. Conversely, the lowest standards of living were found in Bulgaria and Romania.