Comparative assessment of innovative development of the Far North regions

The paper deals with the assessment of the level of innovative development of the Northern regions. Based on the data of the annual rating of innovative economies, performed by Bloomberg, a comparative analysis of the rating of innovative economies in the Nordic countries is presented. It is noted that Russia has been consistently ranked 25-27 in the last four years, although in 2016, it was in the 12th place. An overview analysis of methodological approaches and methods for assessing the level of innovative development of a region in Russia is carried out. On the basis of statistical data on the composite integral index, a comparative assessment of the level of innovative development of 17 regions of the Far North of the Russian Federation for 2017 is carried out, and the corresponding ranks are analyzed separately for 5 sub-indices of thematic blocks: socio-economic conditions, scientific and technical potential, innovation activity, export activity and the quality of regional innovation policy. The study shows a significant difference between the regions of the Far North of the Russian Federation in terms of the level of innovative development. In five subjects of the Far North of the Russian Federation, the values of the composite innovation index are higher than the average for the Russian Federation. Different positions occupied by regions are also observed in the rankings for individual sub-indices. The results of such ratings make it possible to assess the comparative advantages and disadvantages of specific regions for further consideration in the program documents on their innovative development.