This chapter documents trends in income and inequality in Russia from the collapse of the Soviet Union through 2025, drawing on official statistics, the existing literature, and household survey microdata.

This chapter documents trends in income and inequality in Russia from the collapse of the Soviet Union through 2025, drawing on official statistics, the existing literature, and household survey microdata. It also reviews evidence on intergenerational mobility. While there is a consensus that inequality dramatically increased during the 1990s, its post-2000 trajectory is contested. Initial household survey studies usually found a decline, whereas official statistics reported a comparatively stable Gini coefficient. Our analysis of Russia's major household surveys, harmonized using common measurement conventions, aligns with the survey-based literature, indicating that the Gini coefficient generally fell from approximately 0.45–0.48 in the early 2000s to 0.29–0.38 in the early 2020s. We further find that most inequality arises within rather than between regions, urban and rural areas, and education and occupation groups. Household labor-market attachment, region, and household composition account for the largest shares of the explained variance in log income. The large literature on inequality is complemented by a small literature on intergenerational mobility. Here, the various studies on intergenerational dynamics in education, occupation, and income across post-Soviet cohorts conclude that, even against the background of dramatic structural changes, family background remains strongly associated with children’s outcomes. Butaeva and Durlauf thank the James M. and Cathleen D. Stone Foundation for financial support. We used Claude Sonnet 5.5 (Anthropic) for assistance with coding our statistical analyses and for copyediting the manuscript. Responsibility for all content rests solely with the authors. The views expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Bureau of Economic Research. In addition toworking papers, the NBER disseminates affiliates’ latest findings through a range of free periodicals—theNBER Reporter, theNBER Digest, theBulletin on Health, theBulletin on the Economics of Alzheimer's, and theBulletin on Entrepreneurship—as well asresearch spotlights, lectures, and panel videos.