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Migration and Housing Construction in the Regional Capitals of Russia and Their Suburbs
The key differences between Russian municipalities in terms of migration increase (decrease) are
determined by their position in the center-periphery system, which is most often represented with their capital/
noncapital status. Most regional capitals demonstrate migration increase. The larger the capital is and the
higher its migration attractiveness, the wider the areas of its intensively developing suburbs are, and the more
the net increase zone that is observed in them extends. This hypothesis is tested in the article on data for
63 metropolitan areas, in 52 of which data on the new housing supply is simultaneously available. The source
of data is the Rosstat database of indicators characterizing municipalities for 2014–2019, as well as the database
of the shortest distances along existing roads from the centers of regional capitals to the centers of each
municipal unit of the suburban zone (km). Suburbs that are 30–40 km away from the cores of metropolitan
areas are characterized by significant migration increase and housing supply. Starting from a distance of 60–
65 km, housing supply drops to values below the national average, and there is a steady migration decrease.
The larger the population in the cores of the metropolitan areas is, the farther away these borders are from
them. With increasing distance from regional capitals, per capita housing construction as well as the number
of municipal units with net increase and the proportion of the population living in them are declining. A high
migration increase in peri-urban areas is based on a limited number of municipalities with its ultra-high values
that develop standard multi-story housing. They are located in close proximity to the capitals and their
initial population is usually relatively small. An analysis of housing construction and migration rates in
regional capitals and suburban municipal units indicates that the near suburbs represent an extension of
regional capitals beyond their administrative boundaries providing opportunities for extensive territorial and
population growth.