Home – Home – Jornals – Region: Economics and Sociology 2025 number 1

This study presents a methodology for assessing challenges and threats to a region’s sustainable development as manifested in the sphere of population income. It outlines the theoretical foundations and historical aspects of the concept of sustainable development. The methods and criteria for identifying challenges and threats in the population income sphere are highlighted. These criteria include deviations of indicators from normative values, exceeding thresholds, significant lags from national averages for positive trends, surpassing averages for negative trends, prolonged negative dynamics, and/or a negative trend as opposed to positive nationwide patterns. Based on global and national Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Russia’s national SDG indicator framework, we identify the main indicators of challenges and threats in the population income sphere. The methodology is tested using state statistical data over more than 30 years, focusing on an agro-industrial region, namely Altai Krai. Normative and threshold values are determined, guided by the concepts of sustainable development, economic security, and social reproduction, to assess the severity and persistence of challenges and threats in the population income sphere in Altai Krai. The study identifies the following key challenges and threats: (1) Excessively low incomes, reflected in a sustained and significant lag in the growth of real incomes and wages compared to 1990 levels and national averages, as well as in the low purchasing power of per capita monetary incomes and average monthly wages; and (2) Widespread poverty and persistently high income inequality that exceeds established thresholds.