The article examines the evolution of the formation of cities and urban agglomerations in the North of Russia. The aim is to identify cities that meet the criteria of “northern urban agglomeration” from the large cities in the North of Russia. We propose criteria and indicators that make it possible to distinguish urban agglomerations in the urban space; it is noted that for northern urban agglomerations the evaluation criteria can be applied less strictly and indicators less important. We analyze the urban settlement of northern Russia, focusing on northern cities, their structure and the average density of settlements; we consider separately urban-type settlements that contribute to the population density of northern territories, increasing the density of settlements. The focus is on 18 cities with more than 100,000 inhabitants and four cities with a population of a hundred thousand in different years, the core cities have at least two satellite settlements, according to the criteria proposed, they correspond to the concept of an urban agglomeration core city. We consider and group the selected urban agglomerations according to the structure of satellite settlements and the population living in the zones located within 50, 100 and 150 km from the core. With the help of a review of domestic and foreign literature, we have revealed the essence and content of the category “agglomeration effect”. The article identifies three types of agglomeration effects: local objects sharing; cost reduction; and labor pooling. There are two types of effects: localization (clustering) and urbanization effects; the localization effect is the result of enterprises working together in a common area, the urbanization effect is the concentration of organizations in one area, regardless of whether there is thematic proximity between them. Along with the advantages, urban agglomerations cause environmental, economic, political and social problems and pose threats to the stability of small and medium-sized cities; increasing rural deprivation; which will cause further depopulation of large parts of the country, putting the security and integrity of the country at risk
Keywords
population, cities, urban settlements, urban agglomerations, agglomeration effect, settlement system, the North of Russia, criteria and indicators