The educational potential as a factor in the formation and overcoming of socio-economic inequality in the municipal districts of the Kaliningrad region

Demographic processes determine the socio-economic situation in the regions of the world, influencing the internal and external stability of the state. The Kaliningrad region, as an economically developed semi-enclave of the Russian Federation on the Baltic Sea, faces limitations of pendulum migration due to the peculiarities of borders and geography. This necessitates the effective distribution of resources between municipal and urban districts to maximize development rates and contributions to the national economy. Universities and technical schools shape the educational potential of cities and their peripheries, providing personnel for enterprises, raising the cultural level of the population, and improving the comfort of the urban environment. The aim of the study is to identify the role of the educational potential of cities in the Kaliningrad region in smoothing out the disproportions in the socio-economic development of the districts. Tasks include analyzing the settlement scheme, typologizing districts, assessing the training of university and technical school students, identifying educational centers and sub-centers, and checking the neighborhood effect. Data from the 2002 and 2021 Population Censuses were used: population dynamics, demographic load ratio, and the socio-economic development index calculated through value normalization and clustering into four levels. Tabular and graphic methods, time series analysis, spatial econometrics were used: local Moran's I, LISA clusters, and neighborhood tests were applied to assess autocorrelation. From 2000 to 2020, the population of the region increased by 8 percent, but a decline was noted in 14 out of 22 districts; growth is concentrated in the western coastal areas and Kaliningrad due to infrastructure, while decline predominates in the east except for the Gusev district. Urbanization reaches 77 percent, with the urban population growing by 6.7 percent and the rural population by 11.8 percent, mainly in Guryevsk as an agglomeration. Disproportions manifest in the concentration of 48 percent of the population and 67 percent of revenue in Kaliningrad; migration exacerbates the burden amid natural decline. The novelty lies in the integration of educational potential: Kaliningrad as the main center for universities and technical schools for various sectors of the economy, and sub-centers in Chernyakhovsk, Polessk, and Gusev alleviate depopulation in the east through personnel and the neighborhood effect. The development of sub-centers with education, transportation via subsidization in Gusev and Mamonovo smoothens out disproportions. The study contributes to the understanding of the processes of resource distribution between the center and the periphery and effective methods of state intervention.