Regional disparities in development in Morocco: Statistical analyses using dispersion indicators and multidimensional techniques

Regional disparities constitute a real socio-economic problem, reflecting an inequitable distribution of resources and opportunities on the population of the same country, with disastrous economic, social and political consequences. The objective of this article is to extend the discussion on regional disparities, by focusing on the socio-economic dimensions, we have opted for unidimensional statistical approaches by highlighting the distribution and dispersion of a set of socio-economic indicators covering education and employment, health, housing conditions and poverty and living standards; and multidimensional techniques that allowed us to design a synthetic regional development indicator, classify the regions according to the level of development, highlight the gaps and finally draw a development map in Morocco. The analysis of regional disparities through the distribution of the values of the elementary indicators, then the composite social development index, and the regional development mapping shows that, despite the progress made, the regions have not benefited in the same proportions, and the size of the gaps recorded between the best performing regions and the worst performing regions confirms the structural nature of these disparities.