Przegląd Zachodniopomorski

This article approaches the issues related to the subject of the human capital and its spatial distribution in the rural areas of the West Pomeranian voivodeship. Based on the selected features of the region: labour market, economic activity and quality, an attempt was made to distinguish the groups of objects characterised by a similar level of human capital. Selected methods of hierarchisation and classification of multi-featured objects were used for the research. The standardised sums method was employed in order to provide the typology of the rural areas. Object grouping was conducted based on Ward’s method. The diagnosis was meant to allow for an answer to the question regarding the level of the diversification of the rural areas of the West Pomeranian voivodeship in relation to the human capital resources as well as to identify the key modes of this diversity. In addition, an attempt was made to establish whether there are any regularities in the spatial distribution of the human capital in this region of Poland, and if so – to specify them. The base research unit in the analysis was the district (powiat). In accordance with the administrative criterion, rural areas are understood as rural and rural-town communes (gminas). The assumed hypothesis was that there is a significant spatial diversity among the researched areas mainly on the outskirts – regional and sub-regional development centres axis. The results obtained from the research confirm the initial assumptions. They also indicate the diversity of the researched objects on the east-west axis, as well as the distinct positive influence of the factor of localisation on the development of the human capital. The source of the data was the Local Data Bank of the Central Statistical Office.