Einar H. Dyvik
Research expert covering Nordics and global data for society, economy, and politics
Economic inequality worldwide - statistics & facts
Over the past decades, the world has seen increasing levels of economic inequality, where income and wealth is increasingly unequally distributed. Even though the global gross domestic product (GDP) increased steadily over the past decades, the wealth increase has fallen into the hands of a few. For instance, the richest one percent of the global population holds 45 percent of the total global wealth. This trend can especially be observed in developing countries, with South Africa topping the Gini index, probably the most popular way of measuring income inequality around the world. However, developed countries, for instance in Europe, have also seen increasing levels of economic inequality, and many people now see this as one of the biggest issues facing their countries. But why are high levels of economic inequality undesirable, what drives the phenomenon, and what can be done to redistribute more of the income and wealth?
