Analysis of the funding of social services from a spatial approach in Andalusia (Spain)

• Published in: Humanities & social sciences communications 2024-12, Vol.11 (1), p.415-8, Article 415
• Main Authors: Salinas-Perez, Jose A., Ruiz-Ballesteros, Esteban, González-Portillo, Auxiliadora
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Cartography; Datasets; Economic conditions; Economic statistics; Emigration; Employment; Expenditures; Funding; Geography; Government spending; Immigration; Lagrange multiplier; Municipalities; Older people; Per capita; Population density; Poverty; Social policy; Social services; Spatial data; Unemployment; Variables
• ISSN: 2662-9992; 2662-9992
• DOI: 10.1057/s41599-024-02912-x

In Andalusia, Community Social Service Centres (CSSCs) are funded by regulations following demographic, geographic, economic, and social disadvantage criteria. This study aims to analyse the geographical distribution of funding per inhabitant of CSSC by catchment area in Andalusia in 2019, and to study the statistical associations between funding and a range of demographic and socioeconomic indicators. The study spatial units ( n  = 184) included the catchment areas of CSSCs and, in the case of intramunicipal areas in large municipalities, they were grouped at the municipal level. Spatial autocorrelation measures were used to identify spatial clusters of high/low funding rates per inhabitant. Later, nonspatial and spatial regressions were applied to search for associations with different indicators (sex ratio, ageing index, dependency index, emigration rate, immigration rate, unemployment rate, population density, and employment rate in the primary sector). The geographical distribution of the funding of social services in Andalusia was not random since the analyses identified several spatial clusters with significantly high (hot spots) and low (cold spots) funding per inhabitant ( p