In order to study Moscow poverty the author presents methods of measuring it applied in sociology, economics, and statistics. The data used are the Rosstat family budgets surveys, the self-assessment of the financial situation in VCIOM surveys, analysis of deprivation, application of the normative approach based on the subsistence minimum, etc. The specifics of poverty in a megacity have been specified, and the region’s data have been compared with all-Russian indicators. Proposals for its reduction, provision of social assistance have been formulated. The main conclusion from them is the need for a special government program to combat poverty, based on its causes: economic (low incomes – wages, pensions, payments for social insurance) and demographic (disabled dependents – children, disabled, elderly).