Differentiation of the regional development in the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland

Purpose: The purpose of the article is to present the variation in the level of the development of 95 subregions of the NUTS-3 level in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The level of the development shall be established in a multi-criterion manner, separating three factors of the regional development: the society, the natural environment as well as the economy. Design/methodology/approach: The article presents the level of the regional development of the NUTS-3 regions based on 31 indicators based on public statistical data of the Eurostat database. The level of the development has been presented based on the synthetic gauge exhibiting the taxonomic distance of each region from the established pattern of development. The research procedure was composed of four stages and comprised: a selection of variables, a reduction of multi-attribute space, specifying the level of the regional development of the researched units as well as a classification of regions against the scale of the level of the regional development based on the ranking created according to a decreasing value of the synthetic gauge. Findings: As a result of the research procedure conducted, spatial differentiation of 95subregions of the NUTS-3 level in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia with respect to the level of the regional development as well as three components constituting the factors of the said growth is presented. The highest value of the synthetic gauge has been registered in regions comprising the capitals of the respective countries. Moreover, large developmental discrepancies within the respective countries have been identified. Originality/value: The results obtained as a result of having conducted the research may constitute a source of inspiration for the EU institutions within the scope of specifying the richest and the poorest EU regions with the purpose of an efficient management of the cohesion policy in the subsequent programming periods.