ANALYSIS OF WELL-BEING INDICATORS IN SATELLITE TOWNS, CASE OF LATVIA

A satellite town or satellite city is a concept in urban planning that refers essentially to smaller metropolitan areas which are located somewhat near to but are mostly independent of larger metropolitan areas (Evans & Evans, 2007). Taking into account the rapid social economic development of satellite towns, which leads to the population growth in these municipalities, it is important to ensure the well-being for their citizens. As the well-being concept is holistic and includes different dimensions, the methodology on evaluation of the well-being on local level should be developed taking into account the peculiarities of the satellite towns. The aim of the paper is to analyse the well-being indicators in satellite towns of Latvia. Main results and conclusions of the paper: based on designed methodology on identification of satellite towns, 14 satellite towns around Riga were determined. The expert survey on selection of well-being indicators proved that indicators of different areas were needed to evaluate the well-being at satellite towns. The indicators related to remuneration, employment, demography, social safety and safety were selected. On the bases of selected well-being indicators, the Well-being index for satellite towns was designed and satellite towns of Riga accordingly evaluated.