The relevance of the research proposed in the article is determined by the fact that one of the essential components of social security is the demographic situation in the country, the state and level of management of which determines demographic security. The purpose of the article is to describe the social mechanisms of deterioration of the socio-demographic indicators of the Altai Territory in the context of the functioning of the institutional security system of the region. The analysis of the features of the interdependence of demographic and social indicators of the population in the modern regional Russian society is presented on the basis of an interdisciplinary approach (demography, sociology, psychology); a multi-paradigm approach based on the synthesis of social theories of risk and security, well-being, self-preservation reserve of the population, reflecting the specifics of modern social reality. The concept of integrative social vulnerability is used, which is the basis for assessing and predicting the process of depopulation of the population at the national and regional levels and can be applied in the field of optimizing social state control of the security policy system. Conclusions are drawn that the social mechanism of the crisis functioning of the region is based on the interdependence of demographic and social processes; objective globalization trends and regional specifics of a typical Russian border region. An integrative study of the summation of economic, institutional, social, behavioral characteristics, typical self-preservation / self-destructive practices of the population of the region, allowed us to identify current trends and develop ways to optimize them.