Regional Comparative Evaluation: Synthetic Regional Development Index (RDI) for Peru

The research’s aim was to comparatively evaluate regional development in Peru in the period 2015-2019, through the multidimensional elaboration of a Regional Development Index (RDI) that involves the four interdependent components of sustainable development (economic, social, environmental and institutional). For this, it has been rigorously followed the Principal Component Analysis (PCA), the Jenks Natural Breaks method, the sigma convergence and the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficient. The results show that certain regions (Callao, Ica, Moquegua, Lima) triple the development of others (Cajamarca, Huancavelica, Puno, Loreto), despite the fact that the latter have large sources of development; one reason is due to the low progress in the institutional dimension. In hierarchical order, the dimensions with the greatest contribution to the RDI (degree of association of the dimensions with respect to the RDI) are social (95.20%), environmental (95.98%), economic (84.78%) and institutional (49.42%). In addition, the results show the existence of a regional sigma convergence, which indicates that regional disparities decreased in the 2015-2019 period. Likewise, Cronbach’s Alpha Coefficient (0.90) reports the existence of internal reliability in the methodology used. Finally, the design of a web platform prototype that iteratively shows Peru regional development is included, using intelligent algorithms, big data, web scraping and geospatial information.