Production Specializations as a Factor in the Demographic and Social Development of Medium-Sized Cities in Russia

The article is devoted to the study of the connection between the specialization of medium-sized cities in Russia and individual socio-demographic parameters. The purpose of the study is to identify the presence of this relationship and determine its characteristics. A group of medium-sized cities in Russia (from 50 to 100 thousand people) homogeneous in number of inhabitants was chosen as an object, which made it possible to minimize the distortion of the results due to the influence of factors determined by the size of the settlement on the studied indicators. Data for calculation behavior were taken from the Rosstat municipal statistics database. Localization coefficients were calculated for 18 types of economic activity in cities, based on these calculations, the sample cities were divided into specialization groups, and for each group, the influence of the degree of specialization on individual socio-demographic indicators of these cities was determined using econometric methods. The result of the study was the conclusion that certain groups of cities are characterized by statistical dependencies between the degree of specialization of their economies and other development parameters.