Fewer countries are highly unequal than in the 1990s, but income and especially wealth remain concentrated at the top, both within countries and between rich and poor regions.
Updated October 15, 2026. Written from the sources listed below, not independently peer-reviewed.
The poorer half of the world's population owns what share of all private wealth?
43 of 169
Economies with high income inequality
Economies with a Gini index above 40 in their latest household survey, down from 72 in 1995. Most are in Latin America and the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa.
Data year 2024. Source: World Bank, Data360, 2026
4.6
Global Prosperity Gap
On average, incomes would have to rise about 4.6-fold for everyone to reach $28 a day (2021 PPP). The gap has more than halved since 1990, when it stood at 10.5.
Data year 2024. Source: World Bank, World Development Indicators, 2026
2%
Share of global wealth held by the poorer half
The richest 10% of the world's population own about three-quarters of all private wealth. Modelled estimate combining surveys, tax data and national accounts.
Data year 2025. Source: World Inequality Lab, 2025
Unit: times
Selected values from one World Bank series (last updated 8 October 2026). Lower is better: the gap falls when average incomes grow or when the poorest gain more than others. It fell quickly in the 2000s but has declined only slowly since 2015 (5.2). No world value is published for 2019, and the most recent years rely partly on growth projections and are revised as new surveys arrive.
SDG target 10.1 calls for the incomes of the bottom 40% to grow faster than the national average through 2030. Among 112 countries with at least two surveys since 2015, nearly 60% met this test, so in about four in ten countries the poorest 40% fell further behind or saw no growth. Many countries, especially low-income and fragile ones, lack the repeated surveys needed to measure progress at all.
In 93 countries with surveys before and after the pandemic, about 13% of people lived on less than half of their country's median income. In Latin America and the Caribbean the share reached as high as 20%.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026The poorest 40% gained faster than the average in nearly 60% of 112 countries with recent surveys. In East and South-East Asia this was true for 73% of countries, but in Central and South Asia for only 38%.
Source: United Nations Statistics Division, 2026Women receive just over a quarter of the world's labour income, a share that has barely changed since 1990. Counting unpaid work as well, women earn about a third of what men earn per hour worked.
Source: World Inequality Lab, 2025Average daily income is about €125 per person in North America and Oceania against about €10 in sub-Saharan Africa, and public spending on education per child is roughly €220 in sub-Saharan Africa compared with more than €7,000 in Europe (2025, PPP).
Source: World Inequality Lab, 2025Each country is shaded by its latest available value, so you can see where the gap is widest. Hover or tap a country, search for one, or open the full table.
Loading country values…
Values in Gini index (0–100).
Gini index of income or consumption per person from each country's latest household survey since 2010, so years differ (most are from 2018 to 2024). Values above 40 count as high inequality. Countries that measure consumption tend to show lower values than those measuring income, and surveys miss many of the richest households, so true inequality is likely higher.
Source: World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform, via World Bank Open Data. Latest year available per country; years differ.
Values load from World Bank Open Data. Simplified Natural Earth borders; they imply no position on disputed territories.
Instead of one “percent solved” score, DO GOOD rates three separate dimensions. A problem can have mature solutions that still reach too few people. These ratings are an editorial reading of the sources on this page, not a measured index.
Has the situation improved in the real world?
ModerateThe number of highly unequal economies fell from 72 in 1995 to 43 in 2024, and the global Prosperity Gap more than halved. But wealth remains extremely concentrated, the very top has gained fastest, and the global share of income going to workers fell slightly between 2015 and 2025.
How mature and validated are the available solutions?
ModerateTaxes and transfers are well understood and reliably narrow income gaps, cutting them by more than 30% in Europe and North America and Oceania. How best to reduce inequality before taxes, through jobs, skills and markets, especially in low-income countries, is much less settled.
How widely are effective solutions actually used?
LowStrong redistribution is mostly found in high-income countries; many low- and middle-income countries raise little tax and run small transfer programmes. At the top, effective tax rates fall for billionaires and centi-millionaires even where they rise for most of the population.
Gini estimates exist for 169 economies, but in 2022 about 51 relied on surveys more than five years old, surveys miss many of the richest households, and consumption-based surveys give Gini values about 4.5 points lower than income-based ones, which complicates comparisons.
Within-country inequality has fallen in many countries and the Prosperity Gap keeps shrinking, though slowly since the pandemic. At the same time the share of global wealth held by the richest 0.001% rose from almost 4% in 1995 to over 6%.
Income inequality describes how unevenly income is shared among people. Some inequality reflects differences in age, effort or skill, but very high inequality tends to mean that where someone is born, and to whom, largely decides what they will earn. The World Bank counts a country as highly unequal when its Gini index is above 40. By that measure the picture has improved: of 169 economies with data, 72 were highly unequal in 1995 and 43 in 2024. Yet the concentration at the very top is far greater than household surveys suggest. Estimates that add tax records and national accounts find that the richest tenth of the world's people earn more than the other nine-tenths combined, and that the poorer half receives less than a tenth of global income.
High inequality is concentrated in Latin America and the Caribbean and in sub-Saharan Africa, especially Southern Africa. Gaps between countries remain wide as well: average income per person in North America and Oceania is about thirteen times that in sub-Saharan Africa. Inequality matters beyond fairness. In more unequal countries a given amount of economic growth lifts fewer people out of poverty, and there is evidence that high inequality can slow growth itself, limit social mobility and leave large groups without the education and health care they need to improve their lives.
SDG target 10.1 asks countries to raise the incomes of the poorest 40% faster than the national average until 2030. Inequality is tracked with several complementary measures:
The Gini index
The most common summary of inequality, from 0 (everyone has the same income) to 100 (one person has everything). The World Bank calculates it from household surveys of income or consumption and treats a value above 40 as high inequality, a threshold used by earlier UN definitions that roughly separates the most unequal third of observations.
Shared prosperity: growth of the bottom 40%
SDG indicator 10.1.1 compares the annual income or consumption growth of the poorest 40% of the population with that of the population as a whole. A country achieves shared prosperity when the bottom 40% gain, and gain faster than the average.
The Prosperity Gap
Introduced by the World Bank in 2024, it measures how far, on average, people's incomes fall short of a prosperity standard, now $28 a day per person in 2021 purchasing power parity prices. A value of 5 means incomes would on average have to rise fivefold. Shortfalls of the poorest count most, so the measure reflects both growth and inequality.
Top income and wealth shares
Household surveys tend to miss the richest people. The World Inequality Database combines surveys with tax records, national accounts and wealth rankings to estimate the share of income and wealth held by the top 10%, the top 1% and smaller groups. Its Gini estimates are on average 14 points higher than those from surveys alone.
What works
Income taxes that rise with income, combined with child benefits, pensions and targeted cash transfers, directly narrow the gap between rich and poor households. In Europe and North America and Oceania, taxes and transfers consistently reduce income gaps by more than 30%.
Limits
Many lower-income countries collect little income tax and depend on consumption taxes, which weigh more on poor households, so their systems redistribute far less. Poorly designed taxes or subsidies can even leave the poorest worse off.
What works
Public investment in schooling, early childhood and health builds the skills and earning power of children from poorer families, reducing the inequality that is passed from one generation to the next.
Limits
Results take decades, and spending gaps are huge: per child, education budgets in sub-Saharan Africa are a small fraction of those in Europe. Unequal quality within countries can persist even when enrolment is universal.
What works
Rising average incomes shrink the Prosperity Gap, and growth that reaches poorer households narrows gaps at the same time. In East and South-East Asia, where incomes rose fast for decades, 73% of countries with data achieved shared prosperity.
Limits
Growth alone does not guarantee that the bottom 40% catch up: in Central and South Asia only 38% of countries with data achieved shared prosperity. The global labour share has also edged down, so more income has gone to capital.
What works
Minimum wages, collective bargaining and rules against discrimination raise earnings at the bottom of the pay scale and help close gaps between groups, including between women and men.
Limits
Where most people work informally, as in much of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, labour laws reach only a minority of workers, and minimum wages set too high can reduce formal hiring.
What works
Lower fees on money sent home by migrants leave more income with families in poorer countries. The average cost of sending US$200 fell to 6.3% at the end of 2024.
Limits
This is still more than twice the SDG target of 3% for 2030, and costs remain highest for transfers to sub-Saharan Africa and through banks.
Promising, but not proven at scale. The stage shows how far each approach has come; it is not a recommendation.
Researchers and some governments have proposed a coordinated minimum tax on billionaires and centi-millionaires. The World Inequality Report estimates that modest rates could raise between 0.45% and 1.11% of global GDP. Revenue estimates depend on assumptions about avoidance and migration, and international agreement has not been reached.
Tax authorities increasingly receive information on foreign bank accounts held by their residents, which makes it harder to hide income and wealth offshore. Many low-income countries are not yet able to use this information fully.
Statistical offices and researchers are linking household surveys with tax records and national accounts to correct for the missing rich. Such corrected estimates show higher inequality than surveys alone, but methods are still being harmonised and tax data are scarce in many lower-income countries.
Countries are starting to break down survey and administrative data by sex, disability, ethnicity, migration status and place of residence to show which groups fall behind. Fewer than half of countries yet publish discrimination data disaggregated by income, education or migration status.
Knowledge gap
Household surveys underrepresent people at the top of the distribution, and outside high-income countries tax data that could fill the gap are often limited. Gini values that adjust for this are on average 14 points higher than survey-based ones.
Knowledge gap
In 2022 about 51 countries' Gini estimates relied on surveys more than five years old, and only 112 countries had two surveys since 2015 to track the bottom 40%. Many fragile and low-income countries cannot be monitored at all.
Implementation gap
Many low- and middle-income governments raise little revenue from income and property taxes, which limits both redistribution and the public services that build opportunity.
Coordination gap
Effective tax rates fall sharply for billionaires and centi-millionaires, partly because wealth can be moved and held across borders. Closing this gap requires countries to cooperate on tax rules and information sharing.
Implementation gap
Where most people work informally, wages, labour rules and social insurance contributions are hard to apply, so policies that narrow income gaps in formal economies reach only part of the workforce.
Technology gap
Without reliable registries, identification and payment systems, governments struggle to direct transfers to the poorest households and to adjust them quickly when incomes change.
Unresolved questions, not vetted breakthroughs. Answering any of them would change what is possible.
At what levels, and through which channels, does inequality slow economic growth and poverty reduction, and does the answer differ between low-income and high-income countries?
Which policies on education, labour markets, competition and access to land or credit narrow income gaps before redistribution, especially in economies with large informal sectors?
How much revenue can wealth or minimum taxes on the very rich raise once avoidance and migration are taken into account, and what administrative capacity is needed to collect them?
How can survey, tax and national accounts data be combined so that inequality estimates are comparable across countries that measure income and those that measure consumption?
Inequality figures differ widely depending on whether they measure income or wealth, before or after taxes, and from surveys or tax data. Checking which measure a claim uses helps you judge debates on the issue more fairly.
Consider giving to well-evaluated programmes that improve schooling, early childhood care, skills or cash support for low-income families, and that publish independent evidence of their results.
If you employ people, at home or in a business, pay at least a living wage and formalise contracts. If you send money abroad, compare providers: fees for the same transfer can differ several-fold.
Find out how your country's taxes and public spending affect different income groups and how it cooperates on international tax rules, and raise your views with your elected representatives.
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World Bank, Data360 (Lønborg and Yonzan), published 2026
World Bank data story (May 2026) on the Corporate Scorecard inequality indicators: 43 of 169 economies with a Gini above 40 in 2024 versus 72 in 1995, regional concentration, and the Prosperity Gap.
World Bank, World Development Indicators (data from the Poverty and Inequality Platform), published 2026
Annual global Prosperity Gap from 1981 to 2024 in 2021 PPP (series last updated 8 October 2026). Source of the trend values and the 2024 headline figure.
United Nations Statistics Division (data from the World Bank, ILO, OHCHR and others), published 2026
Official SDG progress report: shared prosperity in 112 countries, relative poverty below half the median, labour share 2015-2025, discrimination data and remittance costs.
World Bank (Haddad, Mahler, Diaz-Bonilla, Hill, Lakner and Lara Ibarra), published 2024
Methodology behind the Gini-above-40 indicator: choice of threshold, income versus consumption surveys, survey age, comparison with top-corrected WID estimates, and links between inequality, growth and poverty reduction.
World Inequality Lab, published 2025
Modelled estimates combining surveys, tax records and national accounts (published December 2025): global income and wealth shares, the top 0.001%, gender gaps in labour income, regional income and education spending gaps, redistribution and wealth tax proposals.