The socioeconomic development of municipalities belonging to the Intermediate Geographic Region of Chapecó: a comparative analysis

Abstract

This article aims to present the construction and analysis of a Socioeconomic Development Index for the municipalities that form the Intermediate Geographic Region of Chapecó, based on information on 15 economic and social variables, extracted from a database from different research institutes, considering the years 2000 and 2010 as a reference. The intermediate Geographic Region Chapecó is one of 7 intermediate regions in the state of Santa Catarina, created in 2017 by the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics, made up of 109 municipalities. The study of the socioeconomic development of a region is of fundamental importance, as, among other benefits, it enables the identification of territorial realities, the measurement of social and economic inequalities and, therefore, the monitoring of transformations in time-space. The Socioeconomic Development Index was prepared using Factor Analysis, with verification using the Bartlett and Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin tests, establishment of factor scores and hierarchy. The results indicate the Socioeconomic Development Index for each municipality in the region, classifying them as high, medium and low, in each period analyzed. When comparing the periods, it was observed that there was an increase in the proportion of municipalities with development considered high, in the same way that there was an increase in the number of municipalities with low socioeconomic development, while the number of municipalities with medium development was reduced. The construction of the Socioeconomic Development Index, in this way, provides the opportunity, in addition to measuring and monitoring development, to understand its spatial and territorial trends, and can serve as a tool for planning and implementing development strategies.