Regional Disparities in Development – The Case of Poland

Subject and purpose of work: The paper focuses on identification and assessment of regional disparities in development of Poland in regard to demographic potential, economic development, social development and technical infrastructure in 2006, 2010 and 2015. Materials and methods: Research was conducted with the use of Central Statistical Office’s statistical information with the application of Hellwig’s taxonomic measure of development and standard deviation method of linearly ordered objects’ grouping. Results: Mazovian province was a leader in regard to demographic potential and economic development, while Silesian province took the first position in case of social development and technical infrastructure. The highest levels of synthetic measure of development were noted in Mazovian and Silesian provinces, while the lowest ones were observed in: Warmińsko-Mazurskie and Lubelskie provinces. Conclusions: Pro-development activities should be intensified in the regions with significantly lower level of socioeconomic development, worse equipment in technical infrastructure and weaker demographic potential.