Employment and development levels in rural areas of the Russian Federation

doi:10.1016/j.regsus.2024.100164

Abstract

Abstract:

The development of agro-industrial complex is important for ensuring national food security and national health. The development of rural areas is subject to the development of agriculture and local infrastructure, as well as the availability of various services. This study selected 15 indicators in 2021 to analyze the employment and development levels in rural areas of 71 regions of the Russian Federation using the analytical grouping method. The results indicated that 20 regions (Group 1) had the highest percentage of rural population (33.10%). The percentage of population engaged in agriculture had the highest value (12.40%) in 31 regions (Group 2). Moreover, 20 regions (Group 3) had the highest investments in fixed assets at the expense of municipal budget (11.80 USD/person). Increasing the investments in fixed assets carried out from the budget of the municipality can improve the employment level in rural areas. Then, we used cluster analysis to divide 14 regions of the Volga Federal District in the Russian Federation into 3 clusters. Cluster 1 covered Kirov Region and Republic of Mari El; Cluster 2 included Ulyanovsk Region, Saratov Region, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Perm Territory, Orenburg Region, Chuvash Region, and Republic of Mordovia; and Cluster 3 contained Republic of Tatarstan, Samara Region, Udmurtian Republic, Penza Region, and Republic of Bashkortostan. Results indicated that the 2 regions of Cluster 1 need to increase the availability of resources and natural gas and improve the investment attractiveness of rural areas. The 7 regions of Cluster 2 needed to develop infrastructure, public services, and agricultural production. We found the highest employment level in rural areas, the largest investments in fixed assets at the expense of municipal budget, the largest residential building area per 10,000 persons, and the largest individual residential building area in the 5 regions of Cluster 3. This study makes it possible to draw up a comprehensive regional development program and proves the need for the development of rural areas, which is especially important for the sustainable development of the Russian Federation.

Key words: Rural areas, Employment level, Labor productivity, Investments in fixed assets, Sustainable, Development Goal (SDG), Russian Federation

Guzel SALIMOVA, Gulnara NIGMATULLINA, Gamir HABIROV, Alisa ABLEEVA, Rasul GUSMANOV. Employment and development levels in rural areas of the Russian Federation[J]. Regional Sustainability, 2024, 5(3): 100164.

Figures/Tables 6

Table 1

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Table 2

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Fig. 3.

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Indicator	Group 1 (20 regions)	Group 2 (31 regions)	Group 3 (20 regions)	Average	Difference between Group 1 and Group 3
Percentage of employment level in rural areas (%)	46.50	52.20	57.50	52.10	11.00
Percentage of rural population (%)	33.10	30.80	29.50	31.10	-3.60
Labor productivity in agriculture (×10³ USD/person)	12.74	12.10	15.53	13.45	2.79
Percentage of population engaged in agriculture (%)	10.30	12.40	11.00	11.20	0.70
Investments in fixed assets at the expense of municipal budget (USD/person)	6.13	8.47	11.80	9.07	5.67
Number of service stores (hairdressers, laundries, sewing studios, repair shops, etc.) per 10,000 persons	10.17	10.34	9.97	10.16	-0.20
Number of retail stores per 10,000 persons	56.02	51.30	45.57	50.96	-10.45
Number of sport facilities per 10,000 persons	26.48	28.61	28.28	27.79	1.80
Number of rural settlements without natural gas per 10,000 persons	44.14	42.64	26.23	37.67	-17.91
Number of medical and preventive organizations per 10,000 persons	11.91	12.06	10.52	11.49	-1.39
Residential building area per 10,000 persons (km²/10,000 persons)	4.14	4.40	6.05	4.86	1.91
Individual residential building area (km²/person)	3.30	3.62	5.34	4.10	2.04
Number of collective tourist accommodation facilities per 10,000 persons	2.85	2.61	2.44	2.63	-0.41
Number of rural settlements served by postal service per 10,000 persons	47.92	47.40	37.86	44.40	-10.06
Number of rural settlements with telephoned per 10,000 persons	44.16	42.38	33.39	39.98	-10.77

Division	Indicator	Cluster 1 (2 regions)	Cluster 2 (7 regions)	Cluster 3 (5 regions)	Average
Division 1	Percentage of employment level in rural population (%)	53.20	52.30	53.60	53.03
	Labor productivity in agriculture (×10³ USD/person)	15.72	11.24	15.40	14.12
	Number of rural settlements without natural gas per 10,000 persons	68.93	10.91	10.03	29.96
	Number of collective tourist accommodation facilities per 10,000 persons	1.94	1.35	1.78	1.69
	Number of rural settlements served by postal service per 10,000 persons	76.27	26.77	29.14	44.06
	Number of rural settlements with telephoned per 10,000 persons	76.71	26.06	27.34	43.37
Division 2	Percentage of rural population (%)	27.60	29.30	29.20	28.70
	Percentage of population engaged in agriculture (%)	11.50	12.80	10.60	11.63
	Number of retail stores per 10,000 persons	51.44	43.34	57.66	50.81
	Number of sport facilities per 10,000 persons	34.49	28.41	38.40	33.77
	Number of medical and preventive organisations per 10,000 persons	15.97	12.05	14.83	14.28
Division 3	Investments in fixed assets at the expense of municipal budget (USD/person)	1.45	4.60	6.31	4.12
	Number of service stores (hairdressers, laundries, sewing studios, repair shops, etc.) per 10,000 people	3.65	7.39	16.34	9.12
	Residential building area per 10,000 persons (km²/10,000 persons)	3.80	4.11	8.39	5.43
	Individual residential building area (km²/person)	3.49	3.75	6.88	4.71

Goal	Target value
Increasing the level of average monthly funds available to rural and urban households (%)	80.00
Increasing the percentage of well-maintained housing stock in its total volume in rural areas of the project area (%)	50.00
Protecting of rural population within the project area (%)	100.00
Providing households with access to the Internet in rural areas of the project area (%)	95.00
Ensuring the percentage of children aged 1-6 years old who receive preschool education in municipal educational organisations in the total number of children of the corresponding age in rural areas of the project area (%)	70.00
Ensuring the percentage of population systematically engaged in physical culture and sports in rural areas of the project area (%)	55.00
Ensuring the percentage of gasification of residential buildings (apartments) with network gas in rural areas of the project area (%)	72.00
Providing drinking water to a certain percentage of population within the project area (%)	80.00
Providing sewage treatment system for certain percentage of the houses within the project area (%)	65.00
Reduction of the average radius of accessibility of the feldsher metering station for rural population within the project area (km)	6.00
Reduction of the average radius of accessibility of educational institutions for rural population within the project area (km)	6.00