Figure 14-11 Income Inequality in OECD Countries, 2015
sharing of economic and political power. However, even the richest
developed economies have considerable income inequality.
Figure 14-11 shows one measure of income inequality for 2015 for
selected members of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and
Development (OECD). The measure for each country is the ratio of the
90th percentile income to the 10th percentile income, and it applies to
households’ after-tax incomes. The 90th percentile income is the level of
income such that 90 percent of households have incomes below that
level, while the 10th percentile income is such that only 10 percent of
households have income below it. In Chile, for example, the 90th
percentile income is roughly 7 times greater than the 10th percentile
income. In Canada the ratio is 4.4, whereas in the Scandinavian countries
the ratios are around 3. Though it is not shown in the figure, this measure
of income inequality has been increasing for most of the OECD countries
over the past 25 years.