Analysis of characteristics of the human potential and quality of life in Ural regions

The article continues the series of publications dealing with research on the social and economic factors of human potential development in Russian regions. Human potential is considered in the context of four qualitative characteristics of population: natural growth, life expectancy, level of education, incidence of alcoholism and drug addiction. Since the main factor in human development is quality of life, the study is supplemented by three indicators: average per capita income, poverty rate and unemployment rate. Using cluster analysis previously was developed a typology of regions by these seven criteria including ten clusters. And then each cluster was sequentially analyzed in order to «manually» fine-tune the resulting grouping. This article considers the regions of the Ural Federal District that fell into three clusters. Based on the information provided on the studied criteria, the authors substantiate combining Khanty-Mansi and Yamalo-Nenets autonomous okrugs with two other northern regions in a separate cluster, since their specifics are evident in comparison not only with the rest of the regions of the Ural Federal District, but also with all Russian regions. The issue of including Kurgan oblast in one cluster with Sverdlovsk, Tyumen and Chelyabinsk oblasts was considered in more detail. The sectoral structure of the economy in the UrFO regions, the wages in the three main types of economic activity in the district, as well as the demographic situation in each region were investigated. The main problem of Kurgan oblast is the age structure of the population with a bias towards people over working age. Solving the social and economic problems of this area requires participation of the governing and coordinating bodies of the Federal District. The article substantiates the possibility of dividing the Ural regions into two groups: in one - four regions, in the other - two autonomous okrugs. To finalize the typology of regions, a comparison of the UrFO regions with the Siberian and Far Eastern regions is necessary.