AbstractNowadays competition between regions and consequently the examination of regional competitiveness has become a research question of outstanding importance. In our study we will first look at the definition of competitiveness and the frames of interpretation related to its definition. Afterwards we will proceed to analyse the competitiveness of 93 NUTS3 level regions of 4 East-Central European countries (Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia) with the help of an empirical data base, using principal component analysis method. Regional competitiveness studies tend to be relative, that is why we mostly compare the competitiveness of the metropolitan regions to each other.