Description:
<jats:title>ABSTRACT</jats:title><jats:p>Qualitative and quantitative procedures have been used to aggregate communities and counties for regional economic analysis. However, Once aggregated, communities and counties are perceived as homogeneous entities; this often belies the diversity that may exist. In order to capture the non‐uniqueness of counties, fuzzy‐set clustering procedures were employed to derive a typology of Nevada counties. Fuzzy‐set clustering procedures employing fuzzy‐set membership values and possibility theory derive county membership values associated for specific county clusters. Information from fuzzy partitions yields a means for posterior evaluation of county clusters which is independent of the algorithm producing them. From county membership values calculated from results of the fuzzy‐set clustering analysis for Nevada, specific economic development programs for aggregate and individual counties are derived.</jats:p>