- Global Income Inequality Trends and the Poor, Children
and Women
While the previous section showed the vast income inequalities that
characterize our world, this section sets out to answer some of the
more pressing questions regarding the overlying trends and impacts
of this reality. In particular, what do we know about global
inequality trends over a longer-term horizon? What do the extreme
distortions in income distribution at the global level mean for
different groups, such as the poor, children, women or the middle
classes? And are there alternative measures of wealth that could
shed further light on the overall state of global inequality at present?
2.A. Income inequality in historical perspective
What do we know about world income inequalities over the past
centuries? Studies using longer time series conclude that income
inequality has been constantly increasing since the early 19th century.
Milanovic (2009), for example, calculates Gini indices^27 over time
and finds that global income inequality
rose steadily from 1820 to 2002, with a
significant increase from 1980 onwards
(Table 9).^28 To further inform the more
recent trajectory, Cornia (2003) concludes
that inequality increased globally between
the early 1980s and 1990s following a
review of different studies. While our
analysis shows some reversal of this trend,
there is a significant likelihood that
income inequality is being exacerbated in
the ongoing global economic crisis
(Section 8).
(^27) The Gini index is the most commonly used measure of income inequality,
where 0 is perfect equality (e.g. each person has exactly the same income) and 1 is
perfect inequality (e.g. one person has all income). See Box 2 for a more detailed
discussion on Gini indices.
(^28) See Annex 2 for Gini index values for most countries in recent years.
Table 9. Estimated Global
Gini Indices, 1820 - 2002
Year Gini
1820 43.0
1850 53.2
1870 56.0
1913 61.0
1929 61.6
1950 64.0
1960 63.5
1980 65.7
2002 70.7
Source: Milanovic (2009)