A.Ye. Ivanova, A.Yu. Mikhailov
Federal Research Institute for Health Organization and Informatics of Ministry of Health of the Russian Federation, Moscow

Summary. The purpose of the study is to set up a typology of municipalities by demographic characteristics with regard to regional profile and population distribution. Object of the analysis is urban districts. Selection of this object is characterized by extreme heterogeneity of the "urban population" category and respective differentiation of urban health and mortality indicators depending on the type of the settlement. Although "population of urban districts" and "urban population" categories do not match in full, urban population of urban districts in the Russian Federation averages to 70% of urban population.

According to the 2010 Census, municipalities with population of 20-50 thousand (about one-third of all urban districts in Russia) are the most common type of urban districts. The other two major most populous groups include urban districts with population ranging from 50 to 100 thousand and from 100 to 250 thousand. In total those three groups cover two thirds of all urban districts in Russia.

The Northwest and Fareast regions have the highest share of little towns (up to 10 thousand) while the South region has the highest share of big urban districts (with population of 0.5 million and up). It is due to regional practice of attributing a settlement to the "urban district" type rather than trends towards urbanization.

Slightly over 40% of urban districts include rural population. High share of urban population - over 20%, is mainly typical for little urban districts and, to some extent, for medium urban districts.

Decrease in population of urban districts has been the most prevailing trend over the last three years: from 1.1.2009 to 1.01.12 (in 70% of cases). Negative trends (rapid decrease in population) are typical for little towns and, to some extent, medium-size towns (population up to 100 thousand). Population growth was more often found in big urban districts as well as medium-size ones with population over 250 thousand; the more populous the urban district, the more often rapid growth of population is registered.

Population movement is an important but not the leading factor of the current population dynamics of urban districts. Thus, in one fifth of all cases total population loss in urban districts in 2011 was accompanied by its natural growth. Population grew against the background of the natural population loss in almost 40% of cases. Therefore, it is migration processes that increasingly determine demographic dynamics of urban districts.

Keywords: urban district; size and composition of population; heterogeneity by type of settlement; health differentiation by type of settlement. 

References

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