How India Fares In Terms Of Wealth Inequality

Going by the vast differences in wealth between the rich, developed countries and the poorer nations, inequality between these countries should be higher. But as per data taken from the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Databook for 2016, wealth inequality in India is greater when compared to the Latin American, European and North American regions. This is despite the fact that these regions have varied levels of economic development.

A detailed Mint report outlined the data given by Credit Suisse in the form of charts. The first one maps the Gini coefficient of wealth inequality for the world, for regions and for selected countries. The chart shows that the Gini coefficient for wealth inequality for the world as a whole is 92.7.

The inequality between these countries can also be understood by comparing their share of the world’s adult population against their share of global wealth, shown in the following chart:

If one takes the world as a whole, how is wealth distributed within it? As per the Credit Suisse wealth databook, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer. The data states that the richest 1 per cent of people in the world own 50.8 per cent of global wealth, while the bottom half of the global population’s share has shrunk from 1.6 per cent of the world’s wealth in 2010 to 0.2 per cent now.

Thirty-seven per cent of the global top 1 per cent are from the United States. Next is Japan, with a 9.7 per cent share of the global richest 1 per cent list.

The next chart shows where the poorest 20 per cent of the global population lives.

One can hope that India’s economic policies change the scenario from the present one, where a quarter of the world’s poorest people live here.