Rating of the biggest and big cities of Russia by the level of accommodation comfort

Predominance of urban population, growing level of urbanization, development of scientific, economic and technical potential in the country form the demand of population for raising comfort of their residence. The article provided ranking of Russian cities according to comfort of the living conditions, infrastructure and social institutions. The analysis was carried out for 35 cities with population over 500 thousand people on the basis of 25 indicators combined into 11 groups characterizing attractiveness of cities for living - involvement in the national and global economy, development of the cultural and social spheres, transport, security, demographic processes. The authors used the data presented in per capita terms and in absolute values. The rating was based on the methodology of normalization of data relative to the best rate in the country. The study revealed an exaggerated development of the capital with a significant lag of other major cities. The top five (Moscow, St. Petersburg, Kazan, Ekaterinburg, Nizhny Novgorod) has a greater competitive advantage over other major cities in the quality of life of the population.