Modern dynamic development of the Ukrainian society and its integration into global social and economic space is followed by emergence of a wide range of problems (internal and external calls and threats of political and financial and economic nature; spatial deformations at the regional and local levels, growth of a fragmentariness and asymmetry in social and economic development of regions, areas, cities and rural territories, lack of systemic nature and coordination of all participants of regional development), the majority of which is especially sharply shown at the regional level. In this regard, there is a need to reveal the spatial development characteristics and problems of the cities and rural territories for Ukrainian regions, to identify their weaknesses and strengths, in order to determine the optimal mechanism for improving spatial development, which would in the future allow for efficient combining of the state and regional interests in the process of ensuring sustainable development of social and economic space and its regional subsystems. The basic spatial tendencies and characteristic features of socio-economic development of cities and rural territories of Zaporizhia region are highlighted, as well as the optimum mechanism of improvement of their spatial development taking into account regional specificity is outlined. The analysis of the main socio-economic and spatial development indicators allowed us to identify the main characteristics of the urbanization process in the region and its impact on the development of suburban areas. Ranging of cities and areas of the region by the level of social and economic development by means of an integrated index of economic development of the cities and districts of the Zaporizhia region based on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of various aspects of social and economic dynamics of their development is carried out. This approach allowed us to ensure the validity and methodological correctness of comparisons of cities and districts parameters in Zaporizhia region by partial integral indexes (economic, social and environmental), and also to determine the place of each of them by rating in the region, which allowed to reliably estimate the depth and extent of their socio-economic development differentiation. 

spatial development, socio-economic development, urbanization, monocentricity, old industrial region, index of economic development 

Nowadays the scientists and experts in agricultural business continue discussions about the agricultural holdings’ influence on the development of the territory they operate at, agrarian sector and economy in general. Indeed, activity of agricultural holdings in Ukraine is characterized both by significant number of advantages and by certain peculiar threats, and is accompanied by the range of internal flaws of this integrated agricultural business form. From this viewpoint, it is important to conduct thorough analysis and evaluation of the impact of financial and economic activity of agricultural holdings, especially in the context of maintaining the social and economic development of certain regions. The paper aims to evaluate the impact of agricultural holdings on social and economic development of Ukrainian regions. In order to analyze the impact of financial and economic activity of agricultural holdings on social and economic development of Ukrainian regions the authors calculated the integral agriculture development index for each oblast and analyzed the dependence between the productivity of agricultural production of large agrarian enterprises and this rate. The integral estimation of agricultural production development in Ukrainian regions was carried out for 2016 through standardization of the values of selected indicators against the reference value (according to the chosen methodics, the higher the integral rate shows the higher level of agriculture development). Calculations show that the input of agricultural holdings in the development is the strongest in Vinnytska oblast, where 6 out of 20 largest agricultural holdings by the volume of land bank operate. The impact of agricultural holdings on social and economic development of Kyivska, Cherkaska, Dnipropetrovska, Poltavska and Lvivska oblasts is also essential. Despite the low productivity of agricultural production of large agricultural companies in the southern oblasts (in particular, Odeska and Mykolayivska), the integral agriculture rate is rather high there, which is explained by trade capacity of these oblasts. The following oblasts are the leaders by the volumes of agricultural production: Vinnytska, Poltavska, Kyivska, Harkivska, Dnipropetrovska and Cherkaska, which corresponds to the largest presence of agricultural holdings in these regions. Agricultural lands were the most efficiently used in Volynska, Cherkaska and Vinnytska oblasts. Calculations also show the depressiveness of Donetska and Luhanska oblasts in terms of development of large agricultural enterprises and their input in social and economic development of the regions due to long-lasting political and economic crisis. 

agricultural holdings, social and economic development of regions, land bank, productivity of agricultural production, integral agriculture development index