ANALYSIS OF CHELYABINSK REGION’ UNEVEN SPATIAL DEVELOPMENT

In the article, the author analyzes the Chelyabinsk region’ space in terms of spatial placement of the population, resources, production and retail trade. The relevance of the study is raised by the fact that 2025 is approaching, according to the results of which it is necessary to assess the achievability of the tasks set by the Spatial Development Strategy of the Russian Federation. Research objectives are followung: to acquaint readers with the peculiarities of the distribution of the population, labor and investment resources, production and trade activity in the region; assess the depth of differentiation of spatial development; investigate factors that predetermine the spatial location of production and trade. The author solves this tasks by methods of comparative analysis of density indicators in statics and dynamics (for the period from 2019 to 2023) and correlation analysis. Specific estimated indicators are the indicators of population density, labor, investment resources, production and retail trade. All five indicators have a single denominator, it is the space of the territory. The author focused on 43 municipalities of the Chelyabinsk region. Differentiation of space density is estimated using differentiation, oscillation and variation coefficients. The author got folowing results of the study: high level of space differentiation, but all five density indicators were decreasing over the past five years, but very slightly. Correlation analysis showed the highest level of association between population density and retail density.