Analysis of individual indicators of standard of living of the population and degree of development of human potential in the Aland Islands

The study analyses indicators of standard of living and human potential in the Aland Islands for the period from 2000 to the present. The purposes of the work are to determine changes in the standard of living of citizens during the analysed period and to identify factors influencing these changes. Of interest is the archipelago which is part of Finland, but has the status of an autonomous region, where the majority of the population are native Swedish speakers. An analysis of such indicators as personal income of citizens, wage level, social spending on pensions and benefits, unemployment rate, and gross domestic product per capita has been conducted. Due to the fact that the Islands have an autonomous tax system with lower tax rates than in mainland Finland, an analysis of tax burden on the personal income of the citizens has been conducted. Based on its results, it is revealed that during the period under review, the standard of living of the population was negatively affected by the global financial crises of 2008 and 2014 as well as the period of restrictive measures during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, the pandemic had a stronger impact than the financial crises, but it was short-term, and the standard of living of the population recovered to its previous level. The impact of global economic crises was less noticeable, but long-term, and therefore the standard of living of the citizens has not yet returned to pre-crisis levels.