Spatial inequality in school physical education resources in Shaanxi, China (2021-2024): patterns, determinants, and...

Equity in school physical education (PE) resources is widely emphasized, yet county-level evidence rarely distinguishes demand-driven differences from true under-provision or examines how human, material, and financial inputs jointly shape spatial inequality. We develop an entropy-weighted, demand-adjusted PE resource adequacy index for 107 counties in Shaanxi, China (2021-2024) and combine a student-density-based supply-demand typology with spatial diagnostics (standard deviational ellipse; Global and Local Moran's I), Dagum Gini decomposition, and GeoDetector. Demand-adjusted adequacy shows a persistent core-periphery gradient: in 2024, 75 of 107 counties fall into the Very Low and Low tiers, and extensive Low-Low regimes persist in peripheral areas. Overall inequality peaks in 2022 (Gini = 0.472) and then declines to 0.424 in 2024, but remains structured mainly across prefecture-level cities (≈ 50% of total inequality), with within-city variation small (≈ 9%). Determinants shift over time, and nonlinear interaction enhancement indicates that finance, staffing, and infrastructure operate as complementary inputs rather than independent levers. These findings support jurisdiction-targeted and cluster-oriented intervention packages to reduce demand-adjusted shortfalls.