Economic inequality

Differences in national income equality around the world as measured by the national Gini coefficient as of 2018. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 100, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and 100 corresponds with absolute inequality (where one person has all the income, and everyone else has zero income).

Economic inequality is the disparities in people's incomes and wealth. It affects standard of living for different socioeconomic classes in a given country, as how high one's income is often dictates what they can eat and how often they can eat, what type of dwelling they can live in (to the point of becoming homeless sometimes), quality of medical care etc. Government policies to alleviate such inequality, especially by alleviating poverty, or at least trying to alleviate it, can include universal healthcare, welfare, universal basic income, increasing or decreasing business regulations, etc.

Income inequality is when some people get far more income than other people. As of 2018, the countries of Scandinavia in northern Europe have some of the lowest levels of income inequality. Incomes are more unequal in the United States and even more so in the countries of southern Africa.

Both wealth and income inequality can be measured by the Gini coefficient.

Economic Inequality Media

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  Share of income of the top 1% for selected developed countries, 1975 to 2015

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  Differences in national income equality around the world as measured by the national Gini coefficient as of 2018. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 100, where 0 corresponds with perfect equality (where everyone has the same income) and 100 corresponds with absolute inequality (where one person has all the income, and everyone else has zero income).

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  Global share of wealth by wealth group, Credit Suisse, 2021

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  Countries by total wealth (trillions USD), Credit Suisse

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  World map of countries by the inequality-adjusted Human Development Index.

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  Countries' income inequality according to their most recent reported Gini index values as of 2018.

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  Illustration from a 1916 advertisement for a vocational school in the back of a US magazine. Education has been seen as a key to higher income, and this advertisement appealed to Americans' belief in the possibility of self-betterment, as well as threatening the consequences of downward mobility in the great income inequality existing during the Industrial Revolution.

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  "Elephant curve": Change in real income between 1988 and 2008 at various income percentiles of global income distribution.

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  The gender gap in median earnings of full-time employees according to the OECD 2015

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  Kuznetscurve

Related pages

• Social inequality
• Income inequality in the United States
• Welfare economics