Analysis of the factors forming the observed inequality in the income of population in Russia

The article considers the problem of population's income inequality in the Russian Federation and detection of the factors affecting it. Population's income differences demonstrate both intrinsic and unavoidable differences among individuals and their groups in terms of their participation in the social processes, and the governmental efforts aimed at reasonable and fair distribution of the national wealth among the citizens. The research objective was to identify the dynamics of the Gini index as acknowledged indicator for population inequality in terms of income and to analyze the factors defining such dynamics. The research was carried out based on the national statistical data. The authors detect close connection between the downturns in economy, especially decrease of the dynamics of average income per capita, and the level of population inequality in terms of income. However, contrary to expectation, the correlation is direct which means that during the periods of slowing of the income growth the values of Gini index being the avowed income inequality indicator also reduced...