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The main goal of this paper is to analyze the existence of social convergence in the European Union in 1995-2012. The social convergence refers to a reduction in the dispersion of the standard of living across countries. A taxonomy spatial measure of development is used as the standard of living approximation. The use of a new approach proposed by E. Antczak allows explaining the disparities in the analyzed phenomenon by taking into account the immeasurable spatial factor. Variety techniques are used to test for convergence. The existence of sigma, beta and gamma convergence was tested for the global aggregated measure of the standard of living, as well as for 10 groups of factors affecting this phenomenon. ; Głównym celem niniejszej pracy jest analiza konwergencji społecznej Unii Europejskiej w latach 1995-2012. Konwergencja społeczna rozumiana jest tutaj, jako zmniejszanie dysproporcji w przestrzennym zróżnicowaniu poziomu życia pomiędzy państwami członkowskimi. Za aproksymację poziomu życia przyjęto przestrzenny taksonomiczny miernik rozwoju. Wykorzystanie zmodyfikowanego miernika taksonomicznego zaproponowanego przez E. Antczak pozwoli na nowe podejście w wyjaśnieniu dysproporcji w analizowanym zjawisku poprzez uwzględnienie niemierzalnego czynnika przestrzennego. Znajomość i zrozumienie struktur przestrzeni powinny natomiast umożliwić lepsze przewidywanie zmian poziomu życia ludności w przyszłości. Do testowania występowania konwergencji społecznej wykorzystano kilka różnych metod. Ponadto badanie konwergencji poziomu życia przeprowadzono dla globalnej miary agregatowej poziomu życia, jak również dla poszczególnych grup czynników wpływających na owe zjawisko.

This paper proposes the application of taxonomic tools to study the differentiation of standard of living in the European Union countries. The aggregate distance between given countries is the basis for grouping member states in terms of their internal structure of the studied characteristics. The analysis is based on two chosen methods–the Ward's and k-means method. The study included 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. Depending on the distance between the object, the countries were divided into two or four clusters. Similar configuration of each group obtained using both methods has led to the conclusion that these methods can be used both complementarily and separately. ; This paper proposes the application of taxonomic tools to study the differentiation of standard of living in the European Union countries. The aggregate distance between given countries is the basis for grouping member states in terms of their internal structure of the studied characteristics. The analysis is based on two chosen methods–the Ward's and k-means method. The study included 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. Depending on the distance between the object, the countries were divided into two or four clusters. Similar configuration of each group obtained using both methods has led to the conclusion that these methods can be used both complementarily and separately.

This paper proposes the use of synthetic variable to examine differences in the standard of living in the EU countries. The synthetic variable allows to replace the whole set of variables into one aggregated variable. This variable is the basis for organizing and grouping countries in terms of standard of living. The subject of empirical analysis are 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. The analysis of synthetic variable reveals that there are significant disparities between countries in the field of overall socio-economic development. The analysis show favorable situation in Ireland and very unfavorable conditions in Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries.

This paper proposes the application of taxonomic tools to study the differentiation of standard of living in the European Union countries. The aggregate distance between given countries is the basis for grouping member states in terms of their internal structure of the studied characteristics. The analysis is based on two chosen methods–the Ward's and k-means method. The study included 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. Depending on the distance between the object, the countries were divided into two or four clusters. Similar configuration of each group obtained using both methods has led to the conclusion that these methods can be used both complementarily and separately. ; This paper proposes the application of taxonomic tools to study the differentiation of standard of living in the European Union countries. The aggregate distance between given countries is the basis for grouping member states in terms of their internal structure of the studied characteristics. The analysis is based on two chosen methods–the Ward's and k-means method. The study included 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. Depending on the distance between the object, the countries were divided into two or four clusters. Similar configuration of each group obtained using both methods has led to the conclusion that these methods can be used both complementarily and separately.

This paper proposes the use of synthetic variable to examine differences in the standard of living in the EU countries. The synthetic variable allows to replace the whole set of variables into one aggregated variable. This variable is the basis for organizing and grouping countries in terms of standard of living. The subject of empirical analysis are 24 member states of the European Union in 1995-2010. The analysis of synthetic variable reveals that there are significant disparities between countries in the field of overall socio-economic development. The analysis show favorable situation in Ireland and very unfavorable conditions in Romania, Bulgaria and the Baltic countries.

Incorporation of spatial relationships in the construction of taxonomy measure of development is gaining popularity in Polish literature. However, there is no one common idea concerning how the spatial relationship should be taken into account when creating a synthetic variable nor, indeed, where the spatial weight matrix should be placed. It seems that the inclusion of spatial relationships is more important in smaller regions' analysis, as they are more affected by the situation in the neighbourhood. This explains why, in this research, rankings of the standard of living in Nordic regions were constructed on the basis of proposals presented by Antczak, Pietrzak and Sobolewski, Migała-Warchoł and Mentel. The aim of this study is to identify the advantages and disadvantages of above-mentioned approaches and to compare the compliance of results obtained from them.