The process of territorial differentiation has a steady tendency to deepen,
generating new risks and threats to social stability (Fig. 7). Strengthening socio-
economic inequalities among the regions is an obstacle to the consolidation of society,
leads to a violation of the principle of equal access to consumption of social goods and
services, exacerbates social inter-regional differentiation and promotes increased social
tension in society. In addition to the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, Zaporizhia,
Kirovograd, Dnipropetrovsk, Sumy, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv and Kherson regions are
marked by an unfavorable situation.
Figure 7. Dynamics of the state of social and economic tension in the regions
of Ukraine in 2011-2015
Source: [28]
The authors of the study redranged the regions of Ukraine by the level of tension
(Table 3), the value of which decreases in the results presented below with the increase
of the rank number of the territory. The data presented show that in the Luhansk and
Donetsk oblasts the characteristics of living and working conditions are the most
unfavorable. The situation is still tense in the medical-demographic and labor spheres
in the Zaporozhzhya region, in the medical-demographic area in Chernihiv region. At
the same time Volyn and Ternopil regions have considerable problems with the
material security of the population. The Khmelnytsky region deserves the attention of
analysts, which shows positive dynamics in 2015 in all four spheres in the face of
spatial and temporal fluctuations in other regions of the country. But according to the
- 238 -