Social stratification of the Russian population

The article deals with the issue of the Russian population stratification by average income per capita on the basis of both the officially set values of the subsistence minimum and minimum consumption basket, and the values estimated by experts. The comparative analysis is based on the data from Rosstat. The article provides estimates of the number of population in different income groups: the people below the poverty line, poor, less well-off, well-off, rich. It discusses the problem of the middle class formation and the role of social policy in enlargement of this important social group.