Diagnosis of the Social and Economic Welfare of the Population for the Purposes of Regional Economic Policy

Current situation in the Russian economy in the modern period that is reflected in the 'mirror' of the official statistics shows a substantial differentiation of economic and social characteristics of the Russian regions. Largely this situation is based on the current pre-crisis trends of social and economic development, as well as existing opportunities of regional economies self-development to overcome the consequences of the global economic crisis. Region social development is determined by the system of key-figures (indicators), among which there are the indicators characterizing the population size and population structure, and living standards of the population. The demographic situation in the Southern Federal District, which includes the Volgograd region, is characterized by the fact that during the recent years, the region's population has remained almost unchanged, but for the Volgograd region this indicator has stable negative dynamics. Unemployment rate in the Volgograd region was 1% in December 2013. The main indicator of the living standards (standard of well-being) of the population is the individual income. Volgograd region takes the third place among the regions of the Southern Federal District according to this indicator, being slightly behind the Rostov region and considerably behind the Krasnodar Krai. Volgograd region is also behind in such an important part of personal incomes as the amount of average monthly nominal accrued wages of the working population of all the largest developed regions of the Southern Federal District. Thus, the scope and structure of average income of the regions' population, the territorial constituents of the Southern Federal District, is unequal. Such a territorial disparity of income is determined by the level of economic development of the regions, the main determining factor of which is the size of the GRP, including GRP per capita. According to these indicators, the Volgograd region takes a leading position among the regions of the Southern Federal District. The analysis of population well-being social and economic indicators suggests that for the Volgograd region in comparison with other, primarily the largest SFD regions it is harder to overcome the consequences of the economic crisis and in the context of a macro-regional issue currently has a rating that does not correspond to the real potential of development.