Population quality and regional economy: direct and indirect correlation

The article presents informative analysis of the place and role of population quality in the country’s socio-economic development. The study has two major objectives: to determine the dependence of quality characteristics of the population on purely economic factors, and assess the extent and nature of the impact of the population quality on economic development. We present an extended author’s description of the category “population quality” which includes the following aspects: economic activity, demographic processes, physical health, cultural potential, social health, educational potential, attitude to the environment. Ten statistical indicators out of 63 were selected and substantiated using correlation analysis within these aspects describing quality characteristics of the population. The information framework of the research includes data from the Federal State Statistics Service on 83 constituent entities of Russia for 2014. Based on selected indicators we conducted cluster analysis which helped classify elped the regions including and excluding economic factors. The obtained results of regions’ grouping by quality characteristics of their population identified the impact of the following two factors on homogeneity of regions in clusters: economic development and geographical position. We provide a substantial analysis of the groups of regions; demonstrate their distinctive features and their strengths and weaknesses. In order to analyze the influence of population quality on the economic development we carried out regression analysis. The economic development was characterized by GRP per capita. The population’s quality indicators serve as regressors. The significant factors are GRP per employee and the level of economic activity. The calculations confirmed the hypothesis about the weak influence of social indicators of population quality on the economic development. This result in no way diminishes the importance of improving population quality insignificant for the economy; it once again emphasizes that, in addition to economic, there are other goals of human development.