A Rank Order and Efficiency Evaluation of the EU Regions in a Social Framework

In this paper, methods of multi-criteria efficiency evaluation are implemented for ranking the socio-economic systems of the EU regions. The socioeconomic rank order problem is a multi-criteria non-convex optimization problem that was solved by the implementation of a new efficiency evaluation, AOWI (Absolute Optimal Weights Index). The rank order of the 268 NUTS-2 regions from the 27 European Union countries in the social framework obtained on the basis of 16 socio-economical indicators illustrates social divergence within the European Union and in the new European Union regions.