The work examines the main trend in changes to Local Self-Government in recent years. During this time, changes in municipal government were aimed at reducing the total number of municipal formations and outstripping the growth in the number of city districts. This growth is realized in three ways. From 2010 to 2016 only 509 out of 2328 municipal formations (21.9%) increased in population, by 5.7%. The remaining 78.1% of municipal formations experienced a loss in population. There are 220 city districts and 289 municipal districts among those municipal formations which with a population growth in 2010–2016. These municipalities are presented below.
The main hypothesis of population growth in some municipalities and its decline in others is based on the uneven distribution of central places in the settlement system that ensure the availability of goods and services for the entire population that gravitates towards them. This circumstance is due to the fact that the municipal system in Russia inherits all the features of the pre-existing administrative-territorial division. Therefore, it weakly meets the requirements of the location of production, meeting the needs of the population in goods and services, as well as the whole complex of market relations. The basis for calculations is the “Municipal Russia” database.