High-Income Population Groups in Russia: Analysis and Comparison of Income Levels, Expenditures, and Financial Behavior Based on Data from Various Rosstat Household Surveys

Abstract— This article continues a previously published work on the income, expenditures, and financial behavior of high-income groups in Russia. It presents the results obtained by a comparative analysis of the characteristics for the 10th decile group1 as a whole and by individual percentiles,2 based on microdata from Rosstat’s Sample Survey of Household Budgets (hereinafter, HBS) and the Sample Survey of Population Income and Participation in Social Programs (hereinafter, SSPIPS). Differences across percentiles within the 10th decile group in the level and structure of income—including accounting for the subsistence minimum—are analyzed. The average per capita money income indicators for the 10th decile group as a whole are similar across the HBS and SSPIPS datasets and correspond to the income level of the upper middle class. A more detailed analysis by percentiles reveals differences in income levels and several other characteristics for the top 100th percentile of the 10th decile group. The conclusion is that, according to HBS data, the 1% of the population with the highest incomes can be classified as a high-income group, whereas the SSPIPS database does not cover this population segment, being limited to representatives of the upper middle class.