Assessment of the relationship between health and sustainable development in the countries of the European Union

Abstract

The social dimension of sustainable development (SD) and those aspects of it related to human health are crucial for SD. By means of hierarchical cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) the European Union countries and other three developed countries were assessed using selected indicators reflecting aspects of health related to SD. Five indicators reflecting these aspects at the macroeconomic level were used. These were a pair of objective indicators, a pair of subjective indicators and one indicator reflecting resources for health care. They were applied in order to cluster the 31 countries for each year in the period 2011 - 2015 and also for the whole period. Four clusters were created for the years 2011 - 2014, three clusters for 2015, and five clusters for the overall period. Switzerland was evaluated as the best performing country in the sample, and Lithuania as the worst. Czechia exhibited a significant shift towards higher sustainability.