The differences in the economic and social development levels of regions have become markedly visible since
the change of the political and economic system in Hungary, and the research of regional differences has
become increasingly important.The research presented in the paper was aimed at creating an indicator to
measure the development level of settlements, which is objective, easily quantifiable and meaningful for each
town or village. The researched area was the Western Transdanubian region, and the main tool of analysis
was the Complex Development Indicator (CDI). CDI was computed using 18 variables related to the
economic and infrastructural development status of the villages in question. The settlements of the region were
classified into relatively homogeneous groups based on CDI results, then the main factors leading to
underdevelopment were identified.
