INDEX EVALUATION OF INFORMATIONAL SPHERE DEVELOPMENT IN THE REPUBLIC OF CRIMEA
The article focuses on the approach to index evaluation methodology measuring informational sphere development of a federal entityof the Russian Federation using as the example the Republic of Crimea. The key stages of the suggested technique include the calculation of the scale of the differences as per the regional index of the informational sphere development in the selected microregions as well as the specificity of their development (central, southern, northern, western and eastern) microregions; classification of the microregions of the republic with regard to average regional development index of informational sphere. Thus, the microregions were classified into three basic types: areas with highly developed (central and eastern) information sphere; moderately developed (western and southern) areas; areas with poorly developed (northern) informational sphere. During the research it was revealed that the methodology of index evaluation of the information sphere development allows designing scenarios of digital economy and information sphere development while taking into consideration the changes in social and economic environment in the region. The advantages ofmethodology are as follows: 1) few statistical data and information accessibility; 2) simple calculations of average values of the indices and of the development index of regional informational sphere; 3) simplicity of result interpretation. The suggested classification can be recommended for the development of programs of digital economy and informational sphere development not onlyfor the Republic of Crimea, but also other federal entities of the Russian Federation for an efficient use of a set of key measures.