Humanity now produces more than ever before enough to feed and sustain the entire planet. Yet millions still live and die in poverty.
If such abundance coexists with such deprivation, the problem cannot be production itself, but the way its benefits are shared a way that is far from equal.
Global inequality remains deeply entrenched, reflecting a world economy that is profoundly hierarchical. As frustration and anger grow in many societies seen in the rise of extremist and authoritarian movements one might ask - could this be fueled by such extreme inequality?
The Inequality Spectrum
Let’s start with one simple number theGini coefficient. It tells us how income is shared within a country or across the world. A Gini of 0 means everyone earns the same; a Gini of 1 means one person earns everything. You can imagine that extreme, one Musk holding all the world’s money. This single number will guide us through more than four decades, from the 1980s to today. The line may look simple, but it hides a lot of motion beneath it.
One flat line 🤔
Looking at the global average, the Gini line sits high and stays almost perfectly flat across four decades. At first glance, that looks like stasis — unequal then, unequal now. But has the world really not changed at all in four decades? Has distribution stayed the same? Can a line so flat truly capture what’s happening underneath? Even the 2008 financial crisis left only a small mark before the line steadied again.
Average can be misleading 🤯
Break apart that smooth global line and you find many stories. In the 1980s, the gap between equal and unequal nations was wide. Since then, their distances have narrowed. Nevertheless, even with a smaller gap today, the variance between countries remains enormous — and a single average, condensed into one number, misses much of the real picture. To understand what shapes it, let’s look at countries, regions, and the patterns that emerge between them.
Europe most equal continent 🥳
Europe’s Gini represents a more economically equal continent than the global average. For decades, social welfare systems and labor protections maintained this balance. From the 1990s onward, the Gini coefficient increased gradually as markets liberalized and regulations eased. The distance between Europe and the world narrowed — not because other regions became more equal, but because Europe’s disparities widened slightly.
Even Among Equals
Within Europe, inequality patterns are similar but not uniform. Northern countries remain stable at lower Gini levels; parts of the south and east increase gradually. Together they form a compact cluster, below the global line. Changes are gradual, indicating that equality is maintained rather than settled once.
The United States of rising Inequality
In the early 1980s, the United States 🇺🇸 sat near Europe on the Gini scale — lower, steadier, more balanced. Then, decade by decade, its line climbed. Today, the U.S. 🇺🇸 sits among the highest of advanced economies, showing a widening income gap. The line that once traced broad prosperity now arcs toward polarization.
South America’s Uneven Paths
Across South America, Gini values have remained high. In the 2000s, social programs and wage reforms lowered inequality in some countries, but momentum later slowed. During the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality rose sharply as jobs and informal work were disrupted — a pattern confirmed by regional reports from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and the World Bank. Fiscal measures softened the impact, yet the Gini still increased. In contrast, the United States showed a milder or briefly reversed effect, reflecting stronger policy buffers.
The unequal neighbor Mexico 🇲🇽
Mexico remains one of the most unequal countries in the world. Its Gini rose during economic reforms and trade liberalization in the 1990s, then eased in the 2000s and stabilized at a high level. During the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality first increased as urban and informal workers lost income, then declined sharply and has stayed lower since. Research by Lustig and the IADB links this shift to labor market recovery and wage growth among lower-income workers. Next to the United States, the contrast remains clear — two connected economies shaped by very different social protections and post-crisis recoveries.
The peak of inequality
South Africa’s 🇸🇸 line rises steeply, among the highest on Earth. In the 1980s it was already immense; after apartheid, it climbed even higher. Political change reshaped institutions, but the Gini stayed extreme. Freedom alone couldn’t flatten the line.
Japan: The Outlier of Equality
Japan’s 🇯🇵 Gini barely changes, from the 1980s to today. It remains low and steady.Broad middle incomes and cohesive labor structures kept inequality in check.While others rose and fell, Japan 🇯🇵 held its line.
The flat line revisited 🔄
Seen up close, the flat global line is no longer a mystery.Opposite forces balanced each other out: countries drew closer together while internal gaps widened.The world’s line looks calm, but beneath it, everything moves. 🌍
As the charts presented so far illustrate, economic inequality is strongly influenced by geographical context, which in turn is shaped by local politics and economic regulations—or the lack thereof.
The previous visualizations focused on the Gini coefficient, a single numerical indicator that provides an overall summary of inequality within a country. While the Gini coefficient is useful for understanding the general level of inequality, it can obscure important details. For instance, two countries with the same Gini value might differ significantly in whether inequality is driven by extreme income concetration at the top or lacking a miminum share at the bottom.
To gain a more nuanced understanding, the following charts compare the share of national income held by the richest 10% with that of the poorest 50%. This comparison allows us to observe how these two income groups have evolved relative to each other over the past four decades, revealing more subtle dynamics in inequality trends across countries.
Gap between rich and poor
The upper line represents the income share of the global richest 10%. The lower line represents the income share of the global poorest 50%. In 2023, the top 10% received about 54% of total income, while the bottom 50% received only 8%. Despite growth in emerging economies over recent decades, the global bottom half’s share remains historically low — underscoring how much of the world’s income continues to concentrate at the top.
Smallest gap in Europe
In Europe, the gap between the richest 10% and the poorest 50% was exceptionally small in the 1980s. From the early 1990s onward, the distance between the two began to widen, driven mainly by a decline in the income share of the lower half. A brief reversal appears around the 2008 financial crisis, when top incomes fell slightly and the lower half recovered modestly. Since then, both lines have stabilized, yet the overall gap remains wider than it once was — though still smaller than the global average.
Sweden had a reverse ratio
While inequalities have risen in Europe since the 1980s, Sweden 🇸🇪 remains one of the most equal countries in the world. The top 10% of the population earn just over 30% of total national income, while the bottom 50% receive around 24%. During the COVID-19 pandemic, inequality briefly increased as low-income employment declined, but strong welfare support and recovery measures quickly reversed this effect — returning income shares to pre-pandemic levels.
USA with historical highs
Now let’s compare to theUS 🇺🇸the gap is clear when set againstSwedenThe top 10% earn on average 17 times more than the bottom 50%. Since the early 1980s, deregulation, privatization, lower tax progressivity, and declining union coverage have contributed to a steady rise in the top 10% income share. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the income of the richest 10% continued to rise, while the recovery for lower-income groups lagged. Unlike inSwedenwhere inequality fell after the initial shock, the post-pandemic increase in top incomes in theUS 🇺🇸persisted — reinforcing the long-term trend of widening inequality.
Mexico 🇲🇽
InMexicoinequality has long been among the highest in the world. Yet during COVID-19,Mexicobroke from the global pattern: the income share of the richest 10% fell noticeably — one of the few clear declines among major economies. As the World Inequality Lab notes, Mexicois an exceptional case where the top’s losses outpaced those at the bottom. The gap remains large, but this turn marks a rare departure from the region’s norm.
South Africa biggest gap
Income inequality in theSouth Africa 🇿🇦is the highest globally and over the last 4 decades.
Japan
Income inequality inJapan 🇯🇵is the one of the lowest globally.
The data and analysis presented here are based on the work of more than 100 researchers over four years, located on all continents, contributing to the World Inequality Database (WID.world), maintained by the World Inequality Lab. This vast network collaborates with statistical institutions, tax authorities, universities and international organizations, to harmonize, analyze and disseminate comparable international inequality data. This allows to present systematic data on inequality at the global level and to analyze how it has evolved over time. Global income inequality has always been very great, reflecting the persistence of a world economic system that is extremely hierarchical both between countries and within them.