The subject of this article is the analyses processes in a sphere of forming and using the population's income as a factor of sustainable social and economic development of Russian region in the reform period. Five processes of forming and using the population's income were chosen as the important factors of sustainable development: the dynamics of population's real income and purchasing capacity; transformation of income structure, decrease of production expenditure on labour power, the increasing of social differences and the dynamics of the pour.

Main attention is paid to analysis of characteristics of forming and using of population's income in the reform period on an example of Altai region as a problem region of Siberia and Russia. This analysis was accomplished with using the statistical indices and the results of sociological researches.