**** 7/27/26 - Our World in Data - new section of website with all their data/charts/writing re Economic Inequality.............
Buzz Sawyer
At the same time, the wide range of sources and metrics now available can be difficult to navigate. There are many different approaches to measuring inequality, each with its own strengths and weaknesses, and it can be hard to know how they relate — or where to start.
This page is designed to make the range of inequality data easier to understand. Here you’ll find all our data, charts, and writing on economic inequality, organized around three key international databases: the World Bank’s Poverty and Inequality Platform, the Luxembourg Income Study, and the World Inequality Database.
Taken together, this data shows that inequality in many countries is very high and, in many cases, has been rising. Globally, the gaps between the poorest and richest are extremely large and are compounded by overlapping inequalities in health, education, and many other dimensions.
But it also shows that inequality is not rising everywhere. Global income inequality — measured across the world’s population as a whole — has fallen in recent decades, driven in particular by rapid economic growth in parts of Asia. And within many individual countries, income inequality has fallen in recent decades or remained stable.
This variation across countries tells us something important that is often missed: high and rising inequality is not inevitable. Through their institutions and policy choices, individual countries can affect the level of inequality among their citizens. Inequality is not purely determined by global forces beyond our control; it is something that we can change.
Sections
Inequality around the world: global incomes data from the World Bank