Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality

To understand how many inhabitants of a country are poor, it is not enough to know a country's per capita income. The number of poor people in a country and the average quality of life depend on how equally or unequally income is distributed across the population. A Gini index value of 0 represents absolute equality, and a value of 100 indicates absolute inequality.

	Countries with greatest inequality	Gini index
1.	Namibia	74.3
2.	Lesotho	63.2
3.	Sierra Leone	62.9
4.	Central African Republic	61.3
5.	Botswana	60.5
6.	Bolivia	60.1
7.	Haiti	59.2
8.	Colombia	58.6
9.	Paraguay	58.4
10.	South Africa	57.8
11.	Brazil	57.0
12.	Panama	56.1
13.	Guatemala	55.1
14.	Chile	54.9
15.	Honduras	53.8
16.	Ecuador	53.6
17.	El Salvador	52.4
18.	Peru	52.0
19.	Dominican Republic	51.6
20.	Argentina	51.3
21.	Papua New Guinea	50.9
22.	Zambia	50.8
23.	Niger	50.5
24.	Swaziland	50.4
25.	Gambia	50.2
26.	Zimbabwe	50.1
27.	Costa Rica	49.8
28.	Malaysia	49.2
29.	Venezuela	48.2
30.	Madagascar	47.5

	Countries with greatest equality	Gini Index
1.	Denmark	24.7
2.	Japan	24.9
3.	Sweden	25.0
4.	Czech Republic	25.4
5.	Norway	25.8
	Slovakia	25.8
7.	Bosnia and Herzegovina	26.2
8.	Finland	26.9
	Hungary	26.9
10.	Ukraine	28.1
11.	Germany	28.3
12.	Slovenia	28.4
13.	Croatia	29.0
14.	Austria	29.1
15.	Bulgaria	29.2
16.	Belarus	29.7
17.	Ethiopia	30.0
18.	Kyrgyzstan	30.3
19.	Pakistan	30.6
20.	Netherlands	30.9
21.	Romania	31.0
22.	Albania	31.1
23.	Korea, South	31.6
24.	Canada	32.6
	Tajikistan	32.6
26.	France	32.7
27.	Mongolia	32.8
27.	Belgium	33.0
29.	Moldova	33.2
30.	Bangladesh	33.4

Source: World Development Index 2007, The World Bank.

Information Please® Database, © 2008 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved.

Economic Statistics by Country, 2005

Economic Statistics

Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality

Gap Between Rich and Poor: World Income Inequality