“Quantifying of objective poverty in the districts of the Banská Bystrica Region (Slovak Republic)”

Poverty, as a multispectral phenomenon caused by severe material depriving of the population, is now becoming one of the most watched socio-economic phenomena. Its scale and severity continue to increase in social consequences. The aim of the paper is to quantify and visualize the extent and level of poverty risk in the selected districts in Slovakia based on selected indicators and to compare their rates in 2015, 2019, and 2021. The methodology of the pilot case study is based on a multi-criteria assessment of the poverty rate in a statistically unprocessed territorial unit (district) through 19 objective indicators in three domains: socio-demographic, economic performance, and infrastructure. Metfessel allocation, Fuller, and Saaty methods were used for its evaluation. It is gratifying that the at-risk-of-poverty rate expressed by the synthesis of 19 indicators has decreased in all districts. In 2019, the poverty level decreased by 2.61 points (21.17%) compared to 2015 (23.78%). In 2021, the problem worsened again, and the poverty rate increased by 2.03 points to 23.2%. The Banská Bystrica region is characterized by low economic activity, reflected in the second lowest employment and the second highest unemployment rates, where up to 48.5% of the unemployed are under 35. The paper contributes to the growing debates on the inequality in living conditions, poverty, and marginalization, the scale and severity of which continue to increase in social consequences.


INTRODUCTION
The world has changed in recent decades, not only in terms of poverty but also in income inequality. The concentration of wealth in the hands of the world's wealthiest people continues to grow, opening up scissors between the wealthy and other categories of the world's population. Currently, 40% of the world's poor population lives in unstable or conflict-affected regions.
From an international perspective, Slovakia is one of the countries with the lowest poverty and social exclusion levels in the EU. The lower share of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion was in the Czech Republic (10.2%) and Finland (11.7%). In 2019, about 21.1% of the EU population was at risk of poverty or social exclusion, a slight decrease compared to 2018 (21.6%) (Eurostat, 2020). However, the proportion of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion increased to 21.9% in 2020. From data available from Eurostat (2021), the highest at risk of poverty or social exclusion rates in 2020 were mainly in Romania (35.8%), Bulgaria (33.6%), Greece (27.5%), and Spain (27.0%). On the contrary, the lowest proportions of people at risk of poverty or social exclusion were recorded in the Czech Republic (11.5%), Slovakia (13.8%), Slovenia (14.3%), and the Netherlands (15.8%).
Poverty in Slovakia began to emerge significantly during the period of economic transformation when the change in socio-economic conditions led to increased inequalities not only in the economy but also in society, which caused significant property and social changes. With the onset of new socio-economic conditions, on the one hand, an old-new phenomenon is emerging -unemployment and job loss, as a reflection of the demise of many industrial enterprises, redundancies, and economic crises, which reflect new economic and political conditions and have led to existential problems even to the poverty of many groups of the population. On the other hand, property and social inequalities have shaped groups of people with disproportionate wealth. These changes are reflected in regions where they create differentiation and poverty concentrations. There is visible heterogeneity between regions at or within different hierarchical levels.
In Slovakia, the young generation aged 15 to 35 is most at risk of poverty. The unemployment rate is high and young people are not motivated to look for work and get out of poverty by their own efforts. Inequality of living conditions, poverty, and marginalization, especially in rural regions of Slovakia, their scale and severity continue to increase the social consequences. In such a situation, the effective application of regional and social policy tools to reduce poverty throughout the country is based on identifying poverty at a lower level: at the district level.

LITERATURE REVIEW
Poverty is currently one of the most widespread and persistent global social problems in the world ( There are more approaches to defining poverty, and it is impossible to define the generally accepted term. According to Niemietz (2010), poverty is abstract and ambiguous. There is a consensus that poverty occurs when someone suffers from a significant deficiency associated with insufficient satisfaction of basic needs when they suffer from a lack of things necessary for basic human well-being (Michálek et al., 2020;Singer, 2006;Minnitti, 2013;Sharp et al., 2009;Nándori, 2021a). Sen (1999) broadened the understanding of poverty by defining it as a condition that leads to the absence of freedom of choice and results from the lack of what he refers to as the ability to function effectively in society. According to the World Bank (2018), poverty is not only about income and consumption, but it is also linked to non-financial dimensions such as access to education, electricity, drinking water, and sanitation. Nandori (2021bNandori ( , 2021c states that the Covid-19 pandemic has affected public perceptions of poverty. Poverty is not an isolated phenomenon. On the contrary, it is associated with many factors that support, exacerbate or cause poverty, including unemployment, underestimation of work, poor health, physical or mental disability, family breakdown due to a divorce or death, a low level of education, housing in economically underdeveloped regions, early leaving home, old or too young age, single-parent families, multi-child households, ethnicity, homelessness, indebtedness, ethnicity, social spending and many other factors (Dekkers, 2008 Dewilde (2004), income is one of the most important predictors of poverty. In addition, attitudes to poverty-related issues vary depending on demographic data, socio-economic status, the country's development status, and social policy.
The economically developed world cannot escape poverty despite its basic living needs, especially food, clothing, and housing. From this point of view, poverty is always defined concerning the standard of a given society (Laca, 2011). Poverty can also be characterized by relative poverty (Spicker, 2010), based on the under-achieved percentage of the country's average income (Michálek et al., 2020), i.e., from the assessment of income to a particular average value, in the case of the Slovak Republic to the national poverty limit. Despite the positive economic results in Slovakia, regional disparities have been widening in recent years, mainly affecting economically weaker regions.
According to the EU SILC (n.d.), 16.4% of the population in Slovakia was at risk of poverty or social exclusion, representing 877,000 people in 2019. Regarding the total population, every sixth inhabitant of Slovakia is at risk of poverty (EU SILC, n.d.). 11.9% of the population of Slovakia, which represents 640,000 people, was below the risk of income poverty threshold. Objectively, poverty is best characterized by the at-risk-ofpoverty rate. The most vulnerable group is the population affected by all three dimensions of poverty, which currently represents 2.4% of the population of Slovakia that should be given the most attention. In 2021, according to EU Silk (n.d.), compared to 2019, at-risk-of-poverty has increased by 0.4 points to 12.3%, very low work intensity has decreased by 0.9 points to 3.9%, severely materially deprived has decreased by 2.2% to 5.7%, and powerless or social exclusion has decreased by 0.8 points to 15.6%.
The intensity of poverty is also reflected in the differences between the city and the poorer countryside. According to Gerbery and Džambazovič (2017), two out of three towns in Slovakia characterized by the most significant urban poverty are located in the south of the Bánská Bystrica region -Modrý Kameň and Tisovec. The results of Gerbery and Djambazovic (2017) challenged the research design.

AIM AND HYPOTHESES
The paper focuses on the evaluation of selected indicators of poverty measurement in the districts of the region with the highest level of risk from the point of view of relevant experts in order to identify the extent, level, development, and depth of the poverty risk over two-time horizons in 2015, 2019 and 2021. To obtain the stated aim, two hypotheses were formulated: H1: Poverty intensity is reflected in urban-rural differences, and rural areas are assumed to be poorer in the Bánská Bystrica region.
H2: Poverty rates decrease, reflected in a decrease in disparities in poverty rates between districts of the Bánská Bystrica region.

METHODS
In order to meet the set goal, the selection of indicators was made based on correlations to poverty. It was partly influenced by the availability of data (EU SILC, n.d.). From the geographical point of view, the selection of indicators was carried out for the statistical territorial units NUTS 4 -districts.
The secondary data sources also included data from health statistics and the Plan of Economic and Social Development of the self-governing the Banská Bystrica region in 2015, 2019, and 2021.
A multi-criteria assessment was used to determine the poverty rate at the level of the Bánská Bystrica region districts, consisting of 3 steps: 1) selection of evaluation indicators based on set objectives and available data; 2) determination of values of selected indicators; 3) determination of partial values of the utility of individual indicators according to yield type, which Minár and Tremboš (1998) refer to as maximizing, Stankovičová (2010) as stimulants.
These are criteria in which the district's poverty increases as the value increases. The opposite is the second group of cost criteria (Tremboš, 1998) or minimization criteria (Stankovičová, 2010;Křovák, 1981), the growth of which decreases their value (Nowak, 1990;Borys, 2000).
The result of the multi-criteria evaluation is highly dependent on the selected indicators and the determination of their weights. The size of the scales can also be influenced by the individual view of the evaluator -expert. Due to these limitations and the time aspect, eight experts -specialists in demogeography, regional development, spatial planning, tourism, environmental studies, economics, management, and marketing -were contacted, who evaluated each indicator in the range of 1-10 points. The evaluation criteria of three methods were used to determine the standardized weights: 1) scoring method (Metfessel allocation -"MA"); 2) pairwise comparison method (Fuller method -"FM"); and 3) quantitative pairwise comparison method (Saaty method -"SM").
The resulting weight was created by averaging the sum of the standardized weights "n" of the evaluation criteria: Subsequently, the average standardized weights of evaluation criteria (indices) for the economic, infrastructural, and socio-demographic dimensions were processed into the so-called indicator sheets, and a synthetic objective poverty rate (at-risk-ofpoverty rate) calculated as the sum of the individual domains.
The development of poverty in the districts was determined by the year-on-year growth rate (Bartsch, 1987): where (n) is the number of years in the observed period, x n -the last measured data in the observed period, x 1 -the first measured data in the observed period.
If the result of W is higher than 100, it is an increasing average growth rate; if W is less than 100, it is a decreasing average growth rate.
In order to assess whether or not objective poverty in the districts of the Bánská Bystrica region is deepening, the depth of inequalities between the districts was determined. Its identification was based on the methodology of Michálek and Podolák (2016), where in both years, the value of the least risky district was deducted from the value of the riskiest district. By subtracting the value for 2015 from the value for 2019, a change in the level of poverty was obtained.
Various economic developments have also affected the disparities in the at-risk-of-poverty rate of the regions of the Slovak Republic. Figure 1 shows that in terms of the risk of poverty, the regions of Eastern and Central Slovakia are above the average of the Slovak Republic (11.9% in 2019 and 12.3% in 2021, approximately 660,000 people). Gender disparity was most pronounced among all economic activity statuses in the categories of pensioners and unemployed. For pensioners, women were 1.7 times more likely to be at risk of poverty than men in 2021. In contrast, in the unemployed category -men (55.8%) were more at risk of poverty than women (48.7%). For a household of two adults with two children up to 14 years, the total annual value of the poverty risk threshold was €10,676, which for this type of household amounted to an average of €890 per month.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
To measure objective poverty, the indicators that are closely correlated with poverty and, by nature, were grouped into three basic domains (economic, socio-demographic, and infrastructural), which created a synthetic picture of the risk of poverty in Bánská Bystrica region districts (Figure 2). The highest weight represents the indicator of "Registered long-term unemployment rate in %" (10.2%) from the dimension of economic indicators, and the lowest weight is the "Number of primary schools/1000 pupils" (1.2%) from the dimension of infrastructure indicators. The median value is 5.24%. 10 out of 19 indicators are above their limit.
The highest weight was achieved by the dimension of economic indicators from 10.2 (I. Registered long-term unemployment rate in %) to 2.06% (XIX. Number of registered cars per 1000 inhabitants), while the average group value is 6.68%.
Poverty is significantly affected by economic or financial crises and the current Covid-19 pandemic, which have strongly impacted the growth of unemployment. According to Crettaz (2011), even employment does not provide an opportunity to avoid poverty. Among the unemployed, it significantly affects the long-term unemployed. Districts with a high unemployment rate are characterized by the absence of a skilled workforce, low education, lack of jobs, and underdeveloped industry, which has a minimum amount of domestic and foreign capital and a low level of business activity.  The most significant changes and a decrease in the at-risk-of-poverty rate occurred in three Banská Bystrica region districts (Žarnovica, Žiar nad Hronom, Banská Bystrica), which was mainly due to the significant growth rate of the economic dimension in these districts. The districts belong to the most economically developed districts of the region. Other districts recorded minimal but positive changes in the monitored horizons ( Figure 4).
The Banská Bystrica region belongs to the regions of Slovakia characterized by a combination of weak infrastructure, insufficient economic development, and other negative factors. As the risk of poverty in the Banská Bystrica region has remained relatively high, it is necessary to pay increased attention to the economic and social policy of this region.
The results show fluctuations in poverty rates in the districts of the Banská Bystrica region. In 2015, the regional average poverty rate was 23.78% and ranged from 8.68% (Banská Bystrica district) to 38.05% (Rimavská Sobota district); in 2019, the procedure set the regional average at only 21.17%, while the poverty rate in the districts has decreased, but the ranking has not changed. The best situation was in the Banská Bystrica district (4.97%) and the worst again in the Rimavská Sobota district (38.05%). 2021 showed entirely different results. Unfortunately, the county average rose again by 2.03 points to 23.2%, attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the inhabitants' lives.
In 2021, the best situation with the lowest poverty  rate was in the district of Zarnovica (6.21%); the district of Banská Bystrica took the second place with a result of 6.59%, which is a drop in the case of this district and also a regional city by up to 1.62 points. At the other end was the district of Veľký Krtíš, with a poverty rate of 36.87%, which was worse than the district of Rimavská Sobota, with a poverty rate in 2021 of 36.32%. Economic performance indicators have the most significant impact on poverty rates. On the contrary, socio-demographic profile and infrastructural amenities, although substantial factors, did not gain such a significant impact in the short term (three years in the research).
It is recommended for future research to expand the number of economic performance indicators, which, based on the experience, have the most significant impact on the results of the objective poverty rate research and can even more strongly underlie the development scenarios of the objective poverty rate of the Slovak population.

CONCLUSION
The study aimed to conduct spatial identification of poverty rates at the district level in an attempt to quantify and visualize this complex social phenomenon for meaningful engagement with communities and policymakers. To effectively apply regional and social policy instruments to reduce poverty, it is necessary to identify poverty at a lower level: at the district level. The paper thus contributes to the growing debate on the inequality of living conditions and marginalization, especially in rural regions of Slovakia.
The territory of the studied region is one of the regions most affected by poverty in 2021, where 23.2% of the region's population is below the poverty limit (Slovak average 11.9%). In 2021, the Banská Bystrica region was characterized by low economic activity, which is reflected in the second-lowest employment and the second-highest unemployment rates, where up to 48.5% of the unemployed are under the age of 35. The marginal location, a weak level of the economy, high unemployment, unbuilt technical infrastructure, especially transport, the absence of a qualified workforce, the lack of interest of investors, lower quality of life, and others multiply the risk of poverty and classify Veľký Krtíš, Rimavská Sobota, Poltár, Lučenec, and Revúca districts as multiple Infrastructure dimension Socio-demographic dimension marginalized territories of Slovakia. According to research on regional disparities, unemployment, especially long-term unemployment (lasting more than 48 months), characteristic of this country and especially of the municipalities with a mixed ethnic population and the Roma population suffering from chronic poverty, has a dominant impact on poverty. The high proportion of the population receiving material deprivation also indicates the problematic economic situation in the region.
While globally, people experiencing poverty are concentrated in large cities, where they form typical neighborhoods (slums), in Slovakia, the population below the poverty line lives mostly in the countryside (H1).
The second hypothesis was not confirmed in 2019 because although the poverty rate in the Banská Bystrica region decreased by 2.61 points, regional disparities between districts increased. H2 was confirmed in 2021 when the poverty rate determined by the procedure increased in the Banská Bystrica region from 21.17% to 23.2% between 2019 and 2021, and the disparities between districts also increased. The positive trend and the decline in the poverty rate in the first tracking period of 2015 to 2019 was due to sound economic development. However, this also stalled by 2021 due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and was reflected in a renewed rise in the poverty rate in the Banská Bystrica region to 23.2% between 2019 and 2021.
The Banská Bystrica region belongs to the regions of Slovakia characterized by a combination of weak infrastructure, insufficient economic development, and other negative factors. As the risk of poverty in the Banská Bystrica region has not significantly improved, it is necessary to pay increased attention to the economic and social policy of this region.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The article is supported by financial resources within the framework of Project no. 033SPU-4/2022 entitled "Functional, innovative and digital education of the subject Tourism Marketing. "