Spójność społeczna w krajach i regionach Unii Europejskiej w świetle wskaźnika postępu społecznego
Social cohesion in the countries and regions of the European Union in view of the social progress index

Summary/Abstract: Currently, it has becoming increasingly important to ensure social cohesion, also the regionalone. It has been the objective of political actions undertaken at various levels, including the transnationallevel. The aim of the article is to identify social changes taking place in Poland and itsregions in the light of social progress. The EU includes countries with a different level of social progressin terms of the synthetic social progress index. According to the analysis conducted, Finland,Denmark, Sweden, the Netherlands, Great Britain and Ireland are the EU countries with the highestvalue of the social progress index, whereas Bulgaria and Romania are characterized by the lowestvalue of this index. The fact that EU countries reach different results in the scope of the individualcomponents of this index also indicates the areas to which actions undertaken under the economicpolicy should be addressed. The measurement of social cohesion in the regions in the light of theregional social progress also makes it possible to identify top-ranked voivodeships in Poland. Ahigh level of GDP per capita is not always associated with a high level of social development. Theimprovement of the quality of life, the reduction of poverty and the provision of adequate environmentalconditions, i.e. the widely understood social development, should constitute the main goal ofdevelopment strategies planned for a given country or region. It also entails the need to focus moreon the inclusive development, and at the same time, on achieving not only economic, but also socialcohesion.

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