Rural development of municipalities in the Southwest region of Paraná State: a proposal of measurement using Factor Analysis

Abstract

The theme development needs to be constantly discussed. Therefore, this study aimed to measure the development rate of the rural sector of municipalities from southwest region of Paraná, through factor analysis. The results showed that, on a scale of zero to 100, the development average rate came to 26.63, resulting in a total of 16 municipalities (43.24%) above this value and 21 (56.76%) below this rate. The fact that more than half of the municipalities is in the low level of rural development that shows worrying, since, in the case of municipalities with agricultural profile, the results indicate that even the basic framework for the development of the activity showed satisfactory, suggesting the need of measures to minimize the effects generated by the aspects that influence the phenomenon under study, considering local specificities.