Subject. This article discusses the problems of socio-economic development of monocities.
Objectives. The article aims to consider the industry specialization of special economic zones (SEZ) and determine the extent of their mutual influence.
Methods. For the study, we used a statistical analysis.
Results. Based on the analysis of performance indicators of industrial special economic zones, the article breaks down economic zones and monocities by federal districts and describes their sectoral trends. The article emphasizes that when creating economic zones, the category the nearby monocities belong to was not taken into account, and there is no interaction between the zone and the monocity.
Conclusions. On the basis of the studied, it can be assumed that when creating industrial special economic zones, the objective to improve the socio-economic situation of nearby monocities was not set at all.