Multidimensional Analysis of Sao Paulo State (Brazil) Rural Development

The objective of this study is to evaluate, through a multidimensional index, the level of rural development of the municipalities in the state of Sao Paulo, Brazil. The process used to determine the rural development factors, the contextualization of the dimensions, as well as the definition of the variables assigned to each one of them were carried out in order to accomplish this proposal. Thus, it was possible to elaborate and to analyze the mathematical index. Methodologically, we used Systematic Bibliographic Review, analytical exploration of the results, cluster analysis and Tukey test for index validation. Based on the analysis of the results it was possible to observe neighboring municipalities with similar results, which may justify not only the local evaluation but also a micro-regional or meso-regional study. The understanding of the quality of rural life of Sao Paulo, through a multidimensional index, was able to generate prior knowledge for development policies at regional and local scale.