Assessing the Level of Socioeconomic Development of the Regions of Specific EU Countries and Ukraine

The aim of the article is to assess the level of socioeconomic development of the regions of EU countries and Ukraine. For the analysis and comparison of the level of socioeconomic development of the regions of EU countries and Ukraine, six EU Member States (Spain, Italy, Germany, Poland, France, Sweden) were selected, which are similar to Ukraine in terms of land area, population size, and number of administrative-territorial units. The distribution of the studied EU countries and Ukraine by GDP per capita and unemployment rate showed that Ukraine significantly lagged behind these EU countries in these indicators during the pre-war period. The indicators used for assessing the socioeconomic development of the regions of the country included relative values of gross regional product (GRP) per capita and unemployment rate compared to the corresponding national average. Matrices have been formed for the positioning of regions in EU countries and Ukraine in the coordinate plane of «Economic development – Social problematic issues». The matrices consist of 9 quadrants that characterize the state of social and economic development of the regions of the country. The analysis conducted showed that the overwhelming majority of the regions of the studied EU countries (80 out of 130, or 61.54%) are located in the first four quadrants, which are characterized by high and medium levels of economic development and low and medium levels of social problematic issues. A comparison of the characteristics of the levels of social and economic development of the regions of the studied EU countries and Ukraine in 2021 was made. It was determined that the structure of the levels of social and economic development of the regions of Ukraine significantly differs from the structure of the regions of the studied EU countries. Most regions of Ukraine, that is, 62.0% compared to 38.5% of the regions of the studied EU countries, are located in quadrants 5–9, indicating their predominantly low level of economic development and high level of social problems. The results obtained confirm the necessity of improving approaches to regional policy in Ukraine during the post-war period, particularly harmonizing with European practices.