Similarities and Differences between European Countries Taking in Consideration Socio-Economic Factors
Similarities and Differences between European Countries Taking in Consideration Socio-Economic Factors

Summary/Abstract: In this study we classified the 27 EU members and other countries, such as Croatia, Iceland, Norway and Switzerland ( the last three are EFTA – European Free Trade Association- members) using data from European Union Labour Force Survey ( EU- LFS), a demographic study made in 2005 by Eurostat. At that time Bulgaria, Croatia and Romania were official candidates at the EU. The variables taken to account refers to population classified by gender and age, active and inactive, rates and labour field, level of education and usual hours worked per week. Because the variables were too many, 86, we tried to minimize that number using principal component analysis (PCA). The classification of those states is based on the six factors resulted of PCA, which explains adequate the studied phenomenon. Using Cluster Analysis each country would be a member of the fifth groups and the states would be similar in each group taking in consideration all the factors, but the groups would differ significantly.

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