Migration trends in the Arctic zone of Russia in 2012–2019

The study focuses on long-term migration in the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The Arctic migration trends are very different from those observed in the rest of the Russian Federation. All attractive Arctic territories are washout ones, which means that people do not stay there forever. Migration trends in the Arctic are understudied, almost all demographic studies with a few exceptions have been carried out by regions of the Russian Federation. The analysis was based on the data from the Rosstat Database of indicators by municipal formations. We used indicators of population number, number of arrivals and departures by flows (migration in total, inter-regional, intra-regional, international) and by 69 municipalities that make up the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation. The purpose of the study is to show heterogeneity of the Arctic municipal formations and to develop a typology of the territories. The paper singles out the correlation between migration preferences of young people aged 15–19 years and the access to a university in the municipality. In general, the Arctic is unattractive for young people, and even the access to a university does not correlate with migration growth in all cities, except for Arkhangelsk. We have discovered which territories are the most attractive for different age groups of migrants. This information is important for territorial development strategies. Based on the research results, we can identify several important trends: concentration of population in big multi-profile cities, depopulation of inter-city territories, symmetry of economic and migration attractiveness of the region, relative stability of already developed territories with rather favorable natural and climatic conditions