The Developmental Position of the Bjelovar-Bilogora County According to Several Key Components of the Knowledge-Based Development

Cilj ovoga istraživanja bio je utvrditi zaostaje li Bjelovarsko-bilogorska županija za prosjekom Republike Hrvatske u faktorima i komponentama ključnima za razvoj temeljen na znanju i koliko. Sadašnja razvojna pozicija Bjelovarsko-bilogorske županije u Republici Hrvatskoj utvrđena je uz pomoć pokazatelja razvijenosti: infrastrukture, globalne ljudske komponente i životnog standarda te pokazatelja globalne efikasnosti gospodarstva. Posebice je analizirana razvijenost ljudskih potencijala mjerena indeksom humanog razvoja kao kombiniranim indeksom tri pokazatelja: 1. duljine trajanja života; 2. kupovne moći stanovništva mjerene bruto društvenim proizvodom (BDP) po stanovniku; 3. obrazovanosti stanovništva. Rezultati istraživanja pokazuju da Bjelovarsko-bilogorska županija pripada skupini županija koje razvojno znatno zaostaju za prosjekom Republike Hrvatske. Prema indeksu razvijenosti ljudskih potencijala, Županija ima obilježja srednje razvijenosti i zaostaje za hrvatskim prosjecima jer je Hrvatska u svjetskim razmjerima pozicionirana u skupini zemalja visoke razvijenosti ljudskih potencijala.This research aims at establishing whether and to what extent is the Bjelovar-Bilogora County underdeveloped when compared to the Republic of Croatia’s average factors and components most relevant for the knowledge-based development. The current developmental position of the Bjelovar-Bilogora County in the Republic of Croatia has been defined with the aid of the following development indexes: the infrastructure, the global human component and the life standard, as well as the global economy efficiency index. Particular attention was paid to the analysis of the human potential development, defined with the aid of the human development index, combined of the following three: 1) the life duration; 2) the purchasing power of the population, defined by the gross national income per capita; 3) the population education level. The research results show that the Bjelovar-Bilogora County belongs to the group of counties considerably underdeveloped in comparison to the Republic of Croatia’s average. According to the human potential development index, this County may be described as mid-developed; it is underdeveloped in comparison to Croatia’s average, as globally, Croatia belongs to the group of countries with a high level of the human potential development