Indicator: People Weighted intensity Index

The weighted intensity index (WII) (total flow = inflow + outflow) helps determine whether a region is generally flow dependent or not. It is a measure of regional autarky / flow dependency. The average value of the index for all of a region’s analysed flows can be treated as that region’s overall flow de-pendency. Regions with high WII values are strongly dependent on interregional flows. On the other hand, those with low values are strongly autarkic and only slightly connected with other regions.
The people basket is very diverse internally in terms of the weighted intensity indicator. A clear core-periphery pattern at the European level is visible for migration. This type of flow is crucial for Scandina-via, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Romania, and Greece, while the regions of Spain, Italy, France, and, quite surprisingly, Czechia, Poland, and the Baltic states are less "involved" in the migration pro-cess. The rest of the flows in the people basket vary more from country to country than migration. Austria and the Dalmatian coast in Croatia are among the most flow-oriented for tourists, as are the south of Portugal, the Balearic Islands, Corsica, Norway, and Sweden. On the other hand, labour mobility is par-ticularly high within the European core, from England to the Benelux countries, and from West Germany to Switzerland (but not in northern Italy). Strong labour mobility flows are also visible around agglomera-tions in Central and Eastern European countries (Prague, Vienna, Budapest, and Vilnius). The biggest differences between regions are visible in the context of air passengers, where there is a zero-one sys-tem, for regions with and without an airport. The largest flows are characteristic of regions with large air hubs, but also peripheral regions of richer countries (northern Scandinavia) and tourist destinations in southern Europe.
The pattern of the synthetic indicator for the people basket is surprisingly similar to the one for the goods/serices/capital basket. Western European metropolises clearly dominate in both. Scandinavia and Scotland are also strong. In the people basket, there is also a strong flow within areas attractive to tourists, i.e. in Austria, Croatia, Portugal Algarve, and on the islands of the Mediterranean Sea. On the other hand, the periphery in this aspect consists of Poland (in particular regions located along the border with Belarus and Ukraine), Czechia (except Prague), Bulgaria, and also southern Italy and northwestern Spain. In Western Europe, similarly to the goods/services/capital basket, France is less connected than Germany or the Benelux countries. Once again, the role of capital cities in many countries is evident, as centres for a relatively large proportion of the flows of people. This is the case in all parts of Europe. The countries where high intensity of people flows covers many regions are Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, Austria, and Norway. In peripheral areas of the states which traditionally send migrants to the abovementioned countries, the value of the indicator is low (except for the Vilnius region in Lithuania). This is probably due to the low intensity of non-migratory flows (e.g. tourism). In the spatial distribution there are also regions with long-standing strong external migration and cultural linkages. An example is the Polish Opolskie voivodeship (with a large German minority migrating to and from German regions).