Non-metropolitan Industrial NUTS 3 Sub-regions in the European Union – Identification and Typology

Abstract

A common phenomenon of development is the big difference in its levels, especially between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Non-metropolitan areas are also very different. In some of them, industry plays a big role. European Union’s NUTS 3 non-metropolitan low developed sub-regions, whose gross domestic product per capita in 2011 was below 75% of the EU average, were the subject of research. It is based on the data and Principal Component Analysis used for the typology of 319 sub-regions prepared in 2014. The purposes of the research presented were to identify industrial sub-regions among aforementioned sub-regions, to investigate their diversity and to recognize more detailed sub-regions with the most developed industry. There was also a methodological purpose: to verify a concept for taking into account the weight of principal component in grouping sub-regions into types. As many as 53 sub-regions, in which the rate of gross value added in industry (in %) is 3 times bigger than average in the whole set of the sub-regions examined (that is more than 35%) were defined as industrial. Typology for these sub-regions was made by the cluster analysis using hierarchical method and grouping sub-regions into four types. More detailed characteristics of some sub-regions is the last part of this work.