Multicriterial hierarchy methods applied in consumption demand analysis : the case of Romania

The basic information for computing the quantitative statistical indicators, that characterize the demand of industrial products and services are collected by the national statistics organizations, through a series of statistical surveys (most of them periodical and partial). The source for data we used in the present paper is an statistical investigation organized by the National Institute of Statistics, "Family budgets survey" that allows to collect information regarding the households composition, income, expenditure, consumption and other aspects of population living standard. In 2005, in Romania, a person spent monthly in average 391,2 RON, meaning about 115,1 Euros) for purchasing the consumed food products and beverage, as well as non-foods products, services, investments and other taxes. 23% of this sum was spent for purchasing the consumed food products and beverages, 21.6% of the total sum was spent for purchasing non-food goods and 18,1% for payment of different services. There is a discrepancy between the different development regions in Romania, regarding total households expenditure composition. For this reason, in the present paper we applied statistical methods for ranking the various development regions in Romania, using the share of householdsí expenditure on categories of products and services as ranking criteria.