Demographic and Economic Asymmetry of Urban Development in the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East in 1991–2014

The study assesses changes in the asymmetry of demographic and socioeconomic development and territorial inequality in Russia’s East for regions and cities of the Urals, Siberia, and the Far East. The employed quantitative evaluation methods (Theil index, Gini coefficient, Herfindahl–Hirschman index) reveal multidirectional trends in the growth of economic inequality between cities contrasting to socioeconomic convergence at the regional level. It is shown that state investments to reduce interregional disparities actually intensify them at lower territorial levels, provoking increased inequality. The evolved and established center–periphery gradients result in demographic dynamics polarization between cities, manifested in increased depopulation of small towns and growth of regional capitals. At the same time, the peculiarities of the urban structure and settlement pattern in Siberia and the Far East bring about the formation of extensive demographic depressions around a small number of growing agglomerations, outside which the urban network degrades, leading to numerous negative socioeconomic consequences.