2014 Issue №2(20)

The article takes stock of the “state of affairs” in contemporary research of geographical demography in the USSR and the RF. The issue, concludes the author, has not received sufficient attention, and the use of geodemographic studies in managing regional development remains limited. This article aims to demonstrate three things: the importance of geodemographic approach in comprehensive regional studies to the needs of regional strategic planning; the key features of geodemographic typology of Russian constituent entities; the need for a differentiated approach to geodemographic management in regions of different types. The cluster approach is used to identify types of Russian regions on the basis of both natural and migration-related change. The author identifies correlations between demographic and economic, social, residential, ethnic and environmental demographic indicators; and describes the possibilities of geodemographic situation management stemming from the typological features of the region. The work seeks to draw attention to further development of geodemographic research in Russia and its role in pre-planning studies at the regional level.

The relevance of the study lies in the acute need to modernise the tools for a more accurate and comparable reflection of the demographic reality of spatial objects of different scales. This article aims to test the methods of “demographic rankings” developed by Yermakov and Shmakov. The method is based on the principles of indirect standardisation of the major demographic coefficients relative to the age structure.The article describes the first attempt to apply the method to the analysis of birth and mortality rates in 1995 and 2010 for 140 countries against the global average, and for the Baltic Sea states against the European average. The grouping of countries and the analysis of changes over the given period confirmed a number of demographic development trends and the persistence of wide territorial disparities in major indicators. The authors identify opposite trends in ranking based on the standardised birth (country consolidation at the level of averaged values) and mortality (polarisation) rates. The features of demographic process development in the Baltic regions states are described against the global and European background. The study confirmed the validity of the demographic ranking method, which can be instrumental in solving not only scientific but also practical tasks, including those in the field of demographic and social policy.

This article analyses the natural population increase (decrease) in the postcommunist part of Baltic Europe (the federated state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian, and Warmian-Masurian Voivodeships, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, the Kaliningrad and Leningrad region, and the federal city of Saint Petersburg) in 2002—2011. The study uses standard methods of demographic analysis, the data provided by national statistical services and Eurostat. All regions analysed are characterised by a low stationary phase of the demographic transition model (DTM). The situation proves to be unfavourable in the Polish regions under consideration and highly unfavourable in the remaining area.

This article analyses population changes in North-West regions of Russia (the former North-Western economic zone and the Kaliningrad region) and the Baltics at the level of urban districts and municipalities. The cohort component method is used to analyze the youth population dynamics in the administrative territorial units of this level, which makes it possible to estimate the international (intraregional) migration of this population group. This method is used quite rarely, yet it is more accurate in studying the shifts in distribution of this group of population than current statistics. The article uses the data of the last two censuses (2000 and 2010), namely, the population size and the age and gender composition. In order to demonstrate the core-periphery relationship, the authors identified the core ATUs (national and regional capitals and capital areas), whereas the other units were grouped by their remoteness from the center. The analysis shows that in the countries and regions studied, population concentrates in the capitals and capital areas, whereas the periphery loses population at a fast rate. The centripetal movement is especially pronounced with the youth; moreover, it affects not only the size but also its structure of population in the core and periphery areas, which aggravates the processes of depopulation and ageing.