Quality of Life in Numbers and Solutions

The Agency for Strategic Initiatives (ASI) has been compiling the quality-of-life rating for Russia's regions since 2021, in line with an instruction from Russian President Vladimir Putin. The rating shows how regional teams are creating a comfortable environment, improving family wellbeing, and reducing the gap between different territories.

Experts analyze population wellbeing, housing conditions, healthcare, employment and entrepreneurship, urban improvement, social protection, education and development, transport, ecology, material wellbeing, sport, culture and leisure, as well as safety.

In 2025, the project team updated its methodology to reflect Russia's national development goals and the performance indicators set for regional governors through 2030, with a further outlook to 2036. Experts also compared the Russian approach with international quality-of-life studies. This makes it possible to compare regional results more precisely and assess their trends over time.

To calculate the rating, the team draws on three sources: official statistics from federal agencies, sociological survey results, and geoanalytical data. This approach combines objective indicators with residents' own opinions and information on the real-world accessibility of social infrastructure.

Every year, from October to December, researchers conduct surveys across Russia's regions. Participants include residents aged 16 and over, as well as certain groups of citizens aged 14 and over. Specialists combine online questionnaires with telephone interviews.

The statistical part of the rating is usually calculated using data from the previous year. For the 2025 rating, analysts used 2024 figures, with the exception of certain areas for which agencies provide more up-to-date information.

Geoanalytics helps assess how easily residents can reach schools, clinics, social service facilities, and other important locations. For these calculations, experts use data from Yandex Maps, 2GIS, OpenStreetMap, regional geoinformation systems, and the regions themselves. They take into account whether facilities lie within a 15-minute walk, the characteristics of the road network, and how well-connected different areas are by transport.

After processing the data, the team compiles an integral index and compares the results across Russia's regions. ASI publishes a list of the leading regions and shares the full results with regional management teams through a specialized analytical system. This lets regions see exactly which areas need additional attention.

Separately, experts calculate a "loyalty index." It shows how satisfied residents are with life in their region, whether they intend to stay there, start a family, and tie their future to the region. The index combines statistical and survey data and reflects an overall assessment of the living environment.

The top 20 of the 2025 rating included Moscow, St. Petersburg, Tyumen Region, the Republic of Tatarstan, Sakhalin Region, Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Area–Yugra, Nizhny Novgorod Region, Moscow Region, the Republic of Bashkortostan, Tula Region, Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Area, Sevastopol, Belgorod Region, Kaluga Region, the Chechen Republic, Krasnodar Territory, Lipetsk Region, Sverdlovsk Region, Chelyabinsk Region, and the Republic of Crimea.

Compared with the previous period, 41 regions improved their standing. Russia's average integral index rose by 6.5%, reflecting an overall positive trend in both the statistical and the survey indicators.

As part of the study, specialists surveyed nearly 345,000 people. They paid particular attention to the views of young people, large families, and people with disabilities. The answers from these groups help assess how accessible and sufficient social-support measures are.

The survey results showed positive trends in most areas. Residents rated the quality of social services and medical care higher than before. Regions cut waiting times for doctor's appointments, scheduled hospitalization, and diagnostic procedures. Ratings of how much demand there is on the labor market for secondary vocational education rose by 11%.

Positive changes also touched family support. Ratings of people's ability to provide for a child rose by 40%. Among large families who sought support, around 85% received the help they needed. Among women facing a reproductive choice, around 26% decided to continue their pregnancy after receiving counseling and support. Nizhny Novgorod Region, Moscow, the Chechen Republic, and Sakhalin and Vologda regions lead in the quality of support for large families.

Social indicators reveal the particular strengths of individual regions. St. Petersburg showed the lowest ratio of divorces to marriages; the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol also achieved strong results. Residents of Nizhny Novgorod Region rated school meals 4.3 out of 5. The Republic of North Ossetia–Alania and Sakhalin Region also received high marks.

Residents of Tula and Lipetsk regions, Altai Territory, Moscow, and Belgorod Region rated the quality of medical care above 4 points. Murmansk Region, the Republic of Ingushetia, and Chukotka Autonomous Area lead in ambulance-service accessibility.

Nizhny Novgorod and Lipetsk regions, Altai Territory, Moscow, and Kemerovo Region showed the highest satisfaction with social-support measures. Nizhny Novgorod Region, Moscow, Magadan Region, and St. Petersburg lead in employment opportunities. The Republic of Tatarstan, Sakhalin Region, and Moscow received the highest ratings for business conditions.

Regions with a relatively modest economic base are also showing notable progress. Smolensk, Tula, and Novgorod regions rank among the leaders in the pace of quality-of-life improvement.

Sakhalin Region became the only Far Eastern region to make the rating's top 20. It rose to fifth place from seventh, where it had stood at the end of 2024. The region also ranked among the top three for business conditions, alongside Tatarstan and Moscow.

Sakhalin's result is built on specific social measures. One of them is the "Happy Motherhood" project, which helps women combine having a child with family life and a career.

The region has trained professional nannies and made their services more affordable for families. Employers who want their female staff to return to work subsidize the cost of a nanny and help women build a career plan. Specialists provide personal support to pregnant women, including help with everyday matters. Together with business associations, companies are also changing their corporate culture so that expectant mothers get support in the workplace.

Over the past year, the number of pregnant women in the region rose by 230. The fertility rate reached 1.7 children per woman, and by 2027 the region plans to raise it to 2.3.

Another area of work is targeted poverty reduction. In 2021, more than 11,000 families in Sakhalin were living below the poverty line, and the poverty rate stood at 7.1%. Regional specialists visited these families, drew up household profiles, and developed an individual plan for each family to help them out of a difficult situation.

In total, more than 3,000 families have risen above the poverty line, and the region's overall poverty rate has fallen to 5.2%.

Sakhalin's example shows the rating's central purpose: to identify which measures actually change people's lives. Data, residents' opinions, and targeted work help regional teams see problems more clearly and assess the results of their own actions. Ultimately, changes such as access to healthcare, family support, employment, and confidence in the future remain the true measure of how effective any technology or management decision is.