Kharchenko K.V. Demographic potential as a resource for strategic development of regions and municipalities. Srednerusskiy vestnik sotsialnykh nauk, 2021, vol. 16, no. 2, pp. 56-77.

Abstract

The article reveals the specificity of the demographic potential of the territory, considered in the context of both demographic processes and other types of potential: natural resource, spatial, economic, labor, investment. The purpose is to structure the system of criteria that make it possible to assess the demographic potential of a territory while solving the problem of overcoming inter-territorial inequalities within the framework of strategic planning. The research methodology is a reflexive analysis of a number of strategies for the socio-economic development of municipalities in terms of assessing demographic trends, SWOT analysis of the demographic potential of the territory, targets and measures in the field of demographic policy, as well as relevant strategic indicators. The structure of demographic potential, including undiscovered resources, is presented; unused resources (in particular, the resource of the working-age population not employed in the local economy) and “under-formed” resources (for example, the labor resource of young people, determined by educational policy and vocational guidance). As a result, demographic markers of disproportions in the socioeconomic and spatial development of regions and municipalities were substantiated, as well as ways of moving from a descriptive analysis of demographic indicators to identifying criteria that characterize the demographic potential of a territory, the use of which can smooth out inter-territorial inequalities.