| Аннотация | One of the key challenges for modern states is change in the age structure of the population – a decline in children’s share and an increase in the elderly’s share. In Russia, associated with the declining birth rate, the number of children and their share in the population are also decreasing. This foregrounds the search for manageable factors for preservation of child population’s health and the turn to a comprehensive consideration of the environment that influences it. Children’s well-being is a complex concept reflecting a wide range of issues, ranging from children’s health to the standard of living of their families. Though this issue is of interest, there are only few works devoted to the assessment of children’s well-being in Russian regions. The aim of the study was to assess changes in the child population and characteristics of its well-being in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District. The informational background includes statistical data, results of population surveys, and data of sample observations on socio-demographic issues conducted by the Federal State Statistics Service. It is demonstrated that in spite of the small child population in the regions of the Northwestern Federal District, a steady trend of reducing infant mortality has developed. However, high incidence of disease indicates the continuing risks of loss of children’s health. Based on the analysis of statistical data, it was found that indicators of well-being of the child population in the regions of the District are differentiated. Advantage factors uniting most of the regions under consideration are high provision of children with preventive medical examinations, hot meals in schools, as well as a relatively high degree of their involvement in sports activities. The most pronounced obstacles to achieving children’s well-being in the Northwestern Federal District are the low level of meeting the need for families with children to improve housing conditions, insufficient number of pediatricians, and a high share of families with incomes below the poverty line in some regions
|
|---|
