“…In the first stage of the research procedure, a matrix of geographical information was created based on 31 indicators (Table 1), which specified the changes in the socio-economic development of the NUTS-3 units in the years 2010-2021 in relation to the following factors of development: "the society" (comprising, among others, the changes in the size and quality of human and social capital), "the economy" (comprising, among others, the structure of employment, the level of entrepreneurship as well as the level of innovativeness), as well as "the natural environment" (comprising, among others, spatial planning, the energy consumption of the economy as well as activities harmful to the environment). The abovementioned factors (components) of the development have been identified based on the literature review conducted (Naydenov, 2019;Yun et al, 2017;Feldman, 1999;Khasanova et al, 2020;Spychała, 2020;Diebolt, Hippe, 2019;De Castro et al, 2018;Krugman, 1998;Baklanov, 2020;Goryachikh, Kravchenko, 2020). Subsequently, Pearson's linear correlation coefficients were calculated between the researched departure indicators for their change in the years 2010-2021.…”