Macroregions of Russia: characteristic of human potential

The article deals with a cluster analysis of the human potential of Russian regions revealing a significant effect of the geographic factor on its characteristics. On this basis it shows feasibility of dividing all Federation subjects into three macroregions: regions of the European part of the country, Southern and North Caucasian regions, regions of the Urals, Siberia and the Far East. For each separate macroregion there was carried out a cluster analysis of the population quality based on the information for 2016 covering 7 social indicators that reflect the state of health, educational and cultural level, crime, alcoholism and drug addiction and also ecological behavior of the population. The analysis resulted in construction of a classification of the Federation subjects for each macroregion and estimation of the average characteristics of population quality in the obtained groups (centers of cluster). The authors carried out a detailed substantive analysis of the results of clustering for each separate region. They also examined the difference between the average indicators of population quality by clusters of each macroregion, as well as their deviations from the Russian average indicators. In some cases there was considered a more extended characteristic of cluster - information on each region entering it. This stage, in particular, was carried out for the purpose of a more detailed study of the human potential of two Federation subjects - Sevastopol and the Republic of Crimea. In each macro-region were identified clusters with the maximum and minimum values of characteristics of the population quality that allowed comparing social well-being in regions in terms of the quality of human potential. On the basis of the obtained results the authors draw conclusions on the primary directions of the social policy in regions of each group.