Quality of life of the Murmansk oblast population: subjective assessments and objective characteristics

The assessment of the population's quality of life is an important analytical tool of the state socio-economic policy, which allows analyzing the current level of regional development, the population's satisfaction with living conditions, making interregional comparisons, determining shortcomings and prospective directions of public administration. At the same time, objective statistical indicators, on which the state management is based, in many respects may not coincide with the subjectively perceived quality of life of the population. In this context, the presented research is particularly relevant and practically significant. The purpose of the research is to identify the problems of development of the Murmansk Oblast, the most industrially and territorially developed region of the Arctic zone of Russia, on the basis of the comparison of subjectively perceived assessments of the quality of life and objective socio-economic characteristics, and to outline ways to solve them. To achieve this goal, the following tasks were solved: the methodology for assessing the subjectively perceived and statistically determined quality of life of the population on the basis of indicators characterizing personal well-being and the quality of the living environment was developed; the subjectively perceived quality of life was assessed on the basis of the author’s methodology including the results of surveys of the population of cities and towns in the Murmansk Oblast; the quality of life of the population of the Murmansk Oblast was assessed on the basis of statistical data of socio-economic development; the data of the obtained assessments were compared, similarities and differences in the satisfaction of the population with personal well-being (as well as with the living environment) and statistical characteristics were revealed; the most important problems of socio-economic development, the resolution of which will improve the quality of life of the population of the Arctic region, were identified.