Modern Services and Socio-Economic Development Factors - Analysis of Relations in the System of European Union Countries

The purpose of the paper is to analyse relations changes in the development of modern services, factors and the level of socio-economic development in the system of the European Union countries. The paper attempts to answer the following research questions: (1) how the changes in the level of development of modern services in EU countries are in relation to changes in socio-economic development; (2) what is the classification of EU countries in reference to these relations. The research was carried out for two moments in time - 2008 and 20017. In the analysis, the values of the synthetic index calculated for modern services and development factors and the value of the GDP per capita indicator were used as a measure of the level of socio-economic development. In the first step, changes in the level of development of modern services and development factors were analysed. In the next stage, the analysis of dependence also included the level of socio-economic development measured by the value of GDP per capita and on this basis the classification of EU countries was made. Grouping was carried out using cluster analysis based on statistical data taken from the Eurostat database. The analysis leads to the conclusion that in the process of socio-economic development most countries follow the path leading from the growth of modern services, by strengthening the factors of socio-economic development and, as a consequence, to a higher level of development of the modern economy.