Socio-economic disparities in the Baltic States: Analytical comparison and categorisation of the Regions

Abstract

Although the Baltic states, comprising Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, situated on the historical boundary of Northern, Central and Eastern Europe, are very similar from the viewpoint of regional identity and development as well as history and geographical characteristics, they exhibit regional disparities. This analysis focuses on monitoring a statistical set of ten selected representative economic and social indicators at the level of the NUTS 3 regions using deviations from the median and cluster method. Based on the analysis, the regions were categorized into groups that have shown the major disparities and differences between the capitals’ regions and the rest of the countries.