The questionnaires of mass telephone surveys include a socio-demographic block, consisting, as a rule, of standard questions about gender, age, income level, region of residence, type of settlement, occupation, level of education, etc. Most of these questions were developed many years ago and are used non-refl exively from a survey to a survey by the researchers who believe that these time-tested questions continue to work eff ectively. However, the methodological analysis presented here shows that the application of most of them is fraught with signifi cant problems, and a satisfactory solution to many of them has not yet been found. The article analyzes the problems of measuring the income level, occupation, the region of residence of the respondents, the type of settlement and level of education. The solutions to some of these problems were proposed and implemented in the surveys by the Social Research Institute (Samara). At the same time, most of the diffi culties have yet to be overcome.