Lyudmila Rzhanitsyna

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).