The paper presents issues of measuring regional innovation level with the use of synthetic measures constructed on the basis of selected taxonomic methods. The synthetic measure was determined with the use of 4 different construction methods, where two methods are based on the distance from the standard (methods with the benchmark) and next two are methods without the benchmark. Each method applies a different normalisation procedure. Also principles of measures construction are different. Selection of 17 variables used in an aggregate index was based mainly on the indicators used in the Innovation Union Scoreboard and Regional Innovation Scoreboard. The last part of the article contains an analysis of the relationship between the innovation and regional development level over time. 16 Polish provinces were studied in the period from 2008 to 2012.