The position of borderline areas of Southern Siberia in socio-economic ratings of the Russian regions

Abstract

Subject. The article discusses the position of borderline areas of Southern Siberia in terms of the socio-economic development and geographical position. Objectives. We perform the comparative analysis of the regions’ position, determine the place and status of each borderline area, find identical regions in Russia in terms of the economic situation and difficulties. Methods. The study addresses the multivariate classification of data through the method of grouping and cluster analysis. Results. We suggest using the methodological approach to determining the status of the regions from three dimensions, i.e. social, economic and geographical, and apply some indicators, such as the ratio of average income per capita and the subsistence level for the social view, the real fiscal capacity for the economic view, and the density of the population (man per km2) for the spatial view. To present the data conveniently and clearly, we conducted the cluster analysis, set the dendrogram of the borderline areas of Southern Siberia. Conclusions. Determining the regions’ status by three anchors is more beneficial than traditional types of ranking and grouping, since it provides an unbiased view of the region, helps analyze the current socio-economic difficulties.