Features of placement and growth of the cities of the Southern federal district of Russia

The problem of the phenomenon of placement of productive forces in space at the present stage of development of economic science is a subject of systematic and active researches that is defined by the growing differentiation of a social and economic condition of the cities. The research objective is to reveal features of placement and growth of the cities in the territory of the Southern Federal District of Russia. The working hypotheses are: 1) average population of the city of the region (except for the capital of the region) correlates with distance to the next city with population of 1 million people and more; 2) population density in the region has an inverse relation from the distance to the next city with a million of inhabitants; 3) growth rate of population is indirectly connected with the volume of investment into the city budget. The comparative analysis, method of groups have formed methodological base of the research. The inspection of the declared hypotheses is carried out with use of the method of the smallest squares...