The study focuses on the conditions and factors of economic development in the current century. The authors show the contradictory character of modern social reality, emergence of new opportunities for economic growth as well as challenges and risks for him, nonlinearity and multidimensionality of its effects. The book addresses the challenges of large-scale shifts in the demographic and labour spheres. The human capital with education and health as its main components, immigration, social inequality and territorial space of large cities are analyzed through the lenses of social resources and constraints for national economic development. The study highlights national features of the bright social models in Sweden and France. It provides approaches to solving the most acute social problems in contemporary Russia.