Inequality of Saratov youth: Socio-demographic content

The problem of social inequality among young people is particularly acute due to the contradictory impact on the younger generation. That is it stimulates its mobility, but is intensifi ed due to the limited resources of the region; families, provoke social tension and various deviations, including birth rate restriction. Therefore, it is important to study the demographic aspects of social inequality. The article presents the results of a sociological study conducted by the questionnaire method in Saratov in 2023. According to the probabilistic quota-territorial sample, 550 young Saratov residents were interviewed. The results were processed in the SPSS program. The study showed that gender largely determines the frequency of encountering social inequality – girls face it more often than boys. This is manifested in the availability of property, diff erent starting conditions, the availability of education and the cost of clothing. Young men are more likely to pay attention to a person's mannerisms, the possession of power and the availability of health care. As for girls, the main factors of social inequality are social policies, unfair distribution of income, unemployment, external circumstances, and the impracticality of people. For young men, it is a low level of income, culture and lack of desire to work. Social institutions are of considerable importance for the inequality of young Saratov residents. For girls, these are the institutions of religion, public organizations and state authorities. Young men pay more attention to the infl uence of family institutions, education and the media. Age largely determines the life trajectory and inequality of young people. Young people include access to socially signifi cant benefi ts, place and living conditions, assessment of their material living conditions in comparison with their environment. As they grow older, the importance of such factors as the level of income, power resources, the ability to manage people and circumstances increases. But the importance of place, living conditions and assessment of one's material conditions decreases in comparison with the social environment. The older the respondents are the more suspicious and hostile young people are towards socially unequal people.