Measuring Inequality Across Countries

Economic inequality has become one of the defining challenges of the modern era. While globalisation and technological change have contributed to rising prosperity in many countries, the gains have not been distributed evenly across society. By tracking inequality indicators such as the Gini coefficient, income growth since 1980, and the share of income held by top earners relative to the median, we gain valuable insight into how wealth and opportunity are shared or concentrated within nations.

The Gini coefficient provides a widely used measure of inequality, ranging from perfect equality where everyone has the same income (0.00), to extreme inequality where a single individual controls all income (1.00). Complementing this, the data on income change since 1980 shows how average living standards have shifted over recent decades, while the top to median income ratios reveal the growing gaps between everyday households and the highest earners.

Together, these indicators illustrate that in many countries, inequality remains high and in some cases continues to rise. This matters because inequality is not just an abstract economic statistic it has real consequences for social cohesion, democratic stability, and long-term economic growth. By highlighting these trends, the aim of this resource is to provide a clearer understanding of where each country stands today, and how the distribution of income has evolved over time.

By default, this page displays inequality data for your country, giving you an immediate picture of local income and wealth trends. If you’d like to explore beyond your own borders, you can use the continent and country selectors below to view the same set of indicators for any country in the world. This allows you to compare regions, track global differences, and understand how inequality evolves across societies.

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- GDP

Comparing Median Income per Capita with GDP per Capita helps reveal how evenly a country’s economic output is shared. While GDP per capita represents the average value of all income produced, the median income reflects what a typical person actually earns. When the median is much lower than GDP per capita, it suggests that a large share of income is concentrated among higher earners, a clear sign of inequality.

National Population ()

Median Income per Capita ()

GDP per Capita ()

- Gini

The Gini coefficient shows how evenly income is shared across a population. Lower values indicate greater equality, while higher values suggest income is concentrated among the wealthiest. Historic trend changes in the Gini coefficient over time reveal whether inequality is widening or narrowing within a country.

Gini Coefficient ()

Gini Descriptive Summary

Gini Historic Trend

- Top Earners

These indicators highlight the concentration of income among the wealthiest 1%, 0.1%, 0.01%, and 0.001% of the population. They show each group’s average post-tax income, how many times higher it is than the median earner’s, and the group’s relative size. Together, these measures reveal how a growing share of national income is held by a very small fraction of society, underscoring the wide gap between typical earners and the economic elite.

Top 1%

Average Post-Tax Income per Capita

Group Size

Income to Median Ratio

Top 0.1%

Average Post-Tax Income per Capita

Group Size

Income to Median Ratio

Top 0.01%

Average Post-Tax Income per Capita

Group Size

Income to Median Ratio

Top 0.001%

Average Post-Tax Income per Capita

Group Size

Income to Median Ratio

- Income Change

This chart shows how income distribution has shifted since 1980 across different income groups, from the median earner to the top 1%, 0.1%, 0.01%, and 0.001%. Each trace tracks how much each group’s share of total income has grown or declined relative to 1980, revealing whether economic growth has been broadly shared or concentrated among the highest earners.

Conclusion

This analysis would not be possible without the fine grained data provided by the World Inequality Database (WID). Its percentile based breakdowns allow us to look beyond national averages and uncover how income and wealth are distributed across different segments of society. While the World Bank offers valuable indicators such as GDP, population, and broader economic measures, these tend to reflect general trends and cannot capture inequality with the same level of precision.

The indicators presented here are based on annual post-tax income, providing a view of how earnings are distributed after taxes and transfers. While this offers a meaningful picture of inequality in disposable income, it is important to note that wealth inequality which reflects the distribution of accumulated assets such as property, investments, and capital is typically far more extreme. If the same analysis were based on wealth data, the concentration at the top would appear significantly greater, revealing an even sharper divide between those who hold assets and those who rely solely on income.

The Gini coefficient remains a widely used benchmark for summarising inequality into a single figure, but it has important limitations. By design, it smooths over the extremes, failing to show how much the very richest capture compared to the median, or how deep poverty may be at the lower end. This is precisely where WID data is so powerful, it makes visible the disproportionate growth in the top percentiles, and highlights how inequality can rise even when the Gini index appears relatively stable.

As the WID team often stresses, inequality is not inevitable, it is shaped by political choices, economic structures, and policy decisions. Over the last four decades, many countries have seen widening gaps as top incomes grow far faster than those of the median or bottom. Understanding these dynamics is essential for informed debate on taxation, redistribution, and access to public goods. By combining granular WID data with broader World Bank indicators, we gain a more complete picture of how societies evolve, and the role that inequality plays in shaping both prosperity and social cohesion.

External References

World Inequality Database
World Bank
Gini Coefficient
Distribution of Wealth