The older generation in the structure of the middle class: an experience of regional research

In the twenty-first century, population ageing (increase in the proportion of elderly people in the total population) became one of the main demographic challenges for most developed and developing countries. At that, the consequences of the transformation of the age structure entail changes not only in economic (rising costs for health and social policy, shortage of supply in the labor market, etc.), but also in the social space. UN experts make the right assumption that the role and contribution of the elderly to social development will increase proportionally to the increase in their share and number. In order to prepare the society for future changes, it is necessary to understand the position of the elderly in the social structure of today. Thus, the aim of this article is to estimate the scale of the middle class in the Vologda Oblast and the extent of inclusion of representatives of the older generation in its structure. The theoretical and methodological part presents the basic scientific approaches to the study of the middle class, describes in detail the methods of measurement developed by RAS Institute of Sociology. The second part describes the results of investigation of the scale of the middle class in the Vologda Oblast according to the technique developed by IS RAS, which includes the allocation of elderly people in its structure. The empirical base of the research was the data of the public opinion monitoring carried out by the Institute of Socio-Economic Development of Territories of RAS (October 2016). The authors draw a conclusion that there is a considerable lag of the share of the middle class in the region from the national average. It is revealed that the structure of the middle class in the Vologda Oblast is significantly “older” than that in Russia, i.e. it is formed predominantly by older people (about a third of the core of the middle class and more than half of its periphery). The obtained results once again confirm the consistency and multiplicity of the effects of demographic ageing, which are reflected, in particular, in the transformation of the social structure of society.