EN
The aim of the study was to analyse the similarities and differences between the individual provinces of the functional region of Eastern Poland. Special emphasis was placed on compar-ison of the areas which were qualified as strategic ones in the updated version of the Strategy for Socio-economic Development of Eastern Poland until 2020. To compare the level of economic development, the innovative potential, labour resources, quality of human capital, and the development of transport infrastructure in the individual provinces, Hellwig’s taxonomic measure of development and Ward’s agglomeration combinatorial method were used. This made it possible to identify which of the areas under analysis can be regarded as a relatively homogeneous sphere of intervention and which require an individual approach.