Home – Home – Jornals – Geography and natural resources 2016 number 6S

We have studied current economic and demographic characteristics of quality of life in the Baikal Region in the context of resource development type of the region’s economy and essential limitations of environmental management in the specially pro tected territories in the Lake Baikal catchment area. The scientific problem of the study consists in the interconnected consider ation of socio-economic development and certain aspects of quality of life in the Baikal Region, namely the level average income and average life expectancy at birth. The existing economic situation exerts its influence on quality of people’s life directly through their incomes which are strongly differentiated in territory, so the income index varies fourfold between municipalities (areas, urban districts). Statistical calculations using the author’s methodology and mapping of the income index through municipalities (16 urban districts and 84 municipal areas) allowed to identify territory-specific income levels as an economic premise of human existence. Relying on results of statistical and comparative analysis, we have revealed short-term conditions, especially in the period from 1990 to 2015, trends and variations in life expectancy in large regions - major subjects of the Russian Federation, namely Irkutsk Region, the Republic of Buryatia, and the Trans-Baikal Territory. The Baikal Region has lower (approximately by four years) life expectancy relative to average levels in the Russian Federation. Within the entire Baikal Region a paradoxical situ ation has developed where the most economically developed Irkutsk Region has the lowest life expectancy, whereas in the least economically developed Republic of Buryatia this indicator is the highest, and the Trans-Baikal Territory occupies an interme diate position between them.