Quality of life of the rural population in Russia: integral assessment and regional differentiation

The article presents a study of the regional differentiation of the Russian rural population on the basis of an aggregated array of variables reflecting various aspects of the life quality, in the form of objective indicators of benefits (disadvantages) and subjective assessments of their quality (manifestation). The source of indicators is Rosstat — Comprehensive monitoring of the living conditions of the population for 2020. All variables are grouped by regions of the Russian Federation and are reduced to a single scale from 0 to 1. According to the principle of statistical and meaningful similarity, the array of variables is divided into blocks with subsequent aggregation into «block indicators» with high information content of each variable. They are the basis for classification of regions and development of an integral indicator of the life quality, which effectively solves the problem of interregional comparisons. Based on the results of the analysis, there is identified high information content in the formalization of the rural life quality of those variables that reflect improvement of the household, its financial capabilities, security of living and social characteristics of the family head (the nature of his work), health status, and activity of using the Internet. For the village, lower availability of services, including utilities, remains relevant. Economic activity in personal subsidiary plots is not an additional source of family income and is multidirectional in relation to the life quality. Geographical conditions do not affect the life quality of the rural population: the leading and outsider regions in terms of the values of the integral indicator are dispersed in all parts of the country and do not form continuous territorial areas. The rural population of the southern and central regions is characterized by high self-assessments of health and work, high well-being of rural housing with low assessments of its quality, low leisure and social activity. The rural population of a significant part of the Siberian, Ural, and northern regions is characterized by a higher satisfaction with the socio-economic living environment than in the country as a whole, and lower assessments of housing amenities, working conditions and health.

quality of life, rural population, regions, regional differentiation, principal component method, integral indicator, block indicators, cluster analysis