Charted: How Wealth Inequality Has Changed Since 2008, by Country

Marcus Lu
2024-10-01 08:19:01
www.visualcapitalist.com

These Countries Have Seen Wealth Inequality Changes Since 2008

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This graphic tracks wealth inequality changes in various countries as measured by their Gini index values in 2008 to 2023. Data is accessed via the UBS Global Wealth Report 2024.

The Gini index measures wealth inequality within a population, ranging from 0% (perfect equality) to 100% (maximum inequality).

Higher values indicate greater disparity in wealth distribution. For example, a country where one person owned all the assets and everyone else had nothing would have a Gini index of 100%.

Ranked: Countries by Wealth Disparity Changes (2008–2023)

In UBS’ list of select countries, Singapore has seen the largest growth in its Gini index, up to 70% in 2023 from 53% in 2008.

Rank	Country	2008	2023	% Change
1	Singapore	57	70	+23%
2	Finland	53	64	+21%
3	Spain	47	57	+21%
4	South Africa	70	82	+17%
5	Brazil	70	81	+16%
6	India	62	73	+18%
7	Indonesia	59	68	+15%
8	Italy	50	57	+14%
9	Qatar	43	48	+12%
10	Denmark	56	62	+11%
11	Taiwan	55	61	+11%
12	Japan	50	54	+8%
13	UK	57	61	+7%
14	China	55	60	+9%
15	Mexico	68	72	+6%
16	Australia	51	54	+6%
17	France	56	59	+5%
18	Sweden	74	75	+1%
19	U.S.	76	75	-1%
20	Netherlands	67	64	-4%
21	Switzerland	70	67	-4%
22	Austria	69	65	-6%
23	Germany	72	68	-6%
24	Hong Kong	66	63	-5%
25	South Korea	62	57	-8%
26	Belgium	51	46	-10%
27	Israel	72	64	-11%
28	UAE	88	77	-13%
29	Saudi Arabia	89	77	-13%

The government has enacted policies intended to attract high-net-worth individuals as well as international investment capital to Singapore.

On the flip side, policies to reduce inequality have been constructed through an economic lens, such as trying to remove structural barriers that prevent people from maximizing productivity.

Interestingly, in the same time period, Singapore’s average wealth rose by 116%, while median wealth fell by 2%.

Also in the top three, Finland and Spain join Singapore as the three countries who’ve seen a 20 percentage point increase in their Gini index values since 2008. Of the 29 countries analyzed by UBS, 18 registered rising wealth inequality.

However, wealth disparity has also reduced for several countries, some of them large economies: the U.S. (-1%), Germany (-6%), and Saudi Arabia (-13%).

A recent Federal Reserve analysis found that from 2019 to 2022, low-wealth groups in America had larger percentage gains in wealth compared to their high-wealth counterparts.

Learn More on the Voronoi App

Check out Visualizing Wealth Inequality by Country (2024) for a comparison of wealth disparity in the world’s biggest economies.

The post Charted: How Wealth Inequality Has Changed Since 2008, by Country appeared first on Visual Capitalist.

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