ABSTRACT Objective: to verify the association between social network and functional disability in elderly Brazilians. Methods: a cross-sectional study with secondary data of 11,177 elderly people, available on Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics’ website. Social network components were having trusted friends/relative, living with their spouse, practicing social activity, performing voluntary or paid work. The outcome was functional disability, measured by the difficulty in performing instrumental and basic activities of daily living. Logistic regression models were used. Results: disability prevalence for instrumental activities was 28.0% (95%CI: 26.7-29.4), and for basic activities, 15.5% (95%CI: 14.4-16.6). Not having components social network components was associated with greater chances of functional disability, especially among women. Conclusion: there was an association between not having social network components with functional disability. There are differences in this association according to sex. Strengthening actions that expand social network can reduce the chance of this outcome in elderly people.