In the contemporary world, the anthropogenic effect is increasing. At the same time, the quality of life of the population is strongly associated with the environmental quality, as there is growing understanding that rising economic income does not ensure the humanity’s well-being. In this regard, issues connected with analysing the influence of the anthropogenic factor on changes in the quality of the life of the population become relevant. We believe that existing approaches to assessing the quality of life poorly reflect the current situation related to the speed of the environmental changes due to an increase in the scale and intensity of its pollution. Therefore, for assessing the quality of life, we suggest taking into account the environmental and energy components of the anthropogenic factor. To this end, the classification of anthropogenic factors is supplemented by the “industrial production” group, distinguished by the “source of impact” indicator, which allows analysing the group’s influence on changing parameters of the quality of life of the population. The methodological basis of the study is a comprehensive approach to assessing the quality of life. Based on it, we structured the stages of the evolution of approaches to measuring and assessing the quality of life of the population. Moreover, we described key features of these approaches, and identified the fourth stage that substantiates the priority of environmental and energy criteria in assessing the quality of life. We propose to improve the methodology for assessing the quality of life of the population by introducing additional environmental and energy characteristics. The article presents the results of using this improved methodology. We tested it on the examples of the Sverdlovsk and Chelyabinsk regions. The obtained values of the integral indicators of the quality of life of the population show that the Sverdlovsk region has lower index values. That happened due to a more developed industrial sector and, as a result, the more deteriorated environmental situation. The proposed methodology for assessing the quality of life of the population can be used by regional leaders for making decisions related to the regional development aimed at improving the quality of life of the population. © 2019 Institute of Economics, Ural Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences. All rights reserved. Рассмотрена систематизация подходов к определению и оценке качества жизни. Показаны этапы эволюции подходов к измерению и оценке качества жизни населения. Проанализировано влияние антропогенных факторов промышленного производства на качество жизни населения Свердловской Челябинской областей.