Green economy indicator and the level of socio-economic development - measurement and implications at provincial level

The subject of the article was issues related to the green economy and the Human Development Index (HDI). Its aim was to check whether there is any differentiation in the level of the green economy in the surveyed provinces (voivodeships) and to identify the links between the level of the green economy and the HDI index. The main research problem formulated in the form of a research question was: Is the level of the green economy linked to the Human Development Index? In the first step of the research process, the level of the green economy was determined in regional terms. It was based on the most up-to-date data available. They concerned the year 2022 and were taken from the Central Statistical Office database. Out of the 69 measures included in the database, 16 measures have been selected. In the next step, the results obtained during grouping were compared with the Human Development Index. The study used correlation analysis, a taxonomic method of grouping objects - the Ward method and the non-parametric Kruskal-Wallis H test. Grouping made it possible to diagnose the degree of differentiation of the green economy in the voivodeships and create clusters of similar voivodeships in terms of the level of the green economy. The Kruskal-Wallis H test made it possible to check whether the level of the green economy is linked to the HDI. As a result of these activities, the resulting clusters were compared, and conclusions were formulated. Analyses showed that the level of the green economy varies significantly between voivodeships. However, no statistically significant correlation was found between the level of green economy and the HDI index.