In this paper we relate a fundamental parameter of a random graph, its degree sequence, to a simple model of nearly independent binomial random variables. As a result, many interesting functions of the joint distribution of graph degrees, such as the distribution of the median degree, become amenable to estimation. Our result is established by proving an asymptotic formula conjectured in 1990 for the number of graphs with given degree sequence. In particular, this gives an asymptotic formula for the number of d -regular graphs for all d , as n\to\infty . The key to our results is a new approach to estimating ratios between point probabilities in the space of degree sequences of the random graph, including analysis of fixed points of the associated operators.