The article presents the results of measurements of the main parameters that characterize the economic inequality of the Russian population, presented at the annual international conference "New stage of economic transformation", organized by the Bureau of economic analysis Foundation on April 24-26, 2000. Approaches are proposed for identifying social strata based on the results of regular surveys of household budgets conducted by the state statistics Committee of Russia. An attempt is made to assess the impact of the August 1998 crisis on the behavior of households with different material incomes in the labor market, goods, and capital.