التباين المكاني للخصائص الإقتصادية والإجتماعية للسكان على مستوى المحافظات في الأردن
Issa El-Shair, Department of Geography, Faculty of Arts, Yarmouk University, Irbid, Jordan.
Abstract
This research is primarily concerned with analyzing the key social indicators in Jordan by using the statistical technique of factor analysis. This technique lessens a multitude of variables into few specific factors. In the present study, 39 variables for the 12 Jordanian governorates were considered in the analysis. The principal component analysis was the extracted adopted method. A main aim of this research was to find the total variance explained. By using eigenvalues = 1, five factors were produced. The cumulative percentage explained was 93.106. After specifying the contributions of the variables in the extracted factors, known as the communalities, and the total variance explained, the rotation procedure was used to determine a form where each variable has a high loading on only one factor i.e. a search for factors representing a cluster of highly correlated variables. The five factors produced by the rotated component matrix were (1) population and service establishments; (2) medical centers; (3) urbanization and literacy; (4) life expectancy; and (5) income and unemployment. The total variance explained by each of these factors were 51.572 percent, 14.500 percent, 13.434 percent, 7.602 percent, 5.999 respectively. Finally, a hierarchical cluster analysis was used to show the general cluster pattern between the twelve Jordanian governorates. Three clusters, with same characteristics for each, were obtained. These clusters were (a) Amman, (b) Zarqa and Irbid, and (c) others. The technique proved to be very important in explaining the key social indicators in Jordan with cluster analysis to be more useful.