Around the world, citizens, politicians, and economists decry that the rich get richer, while the poor get poorer. Worldwide, the gap has widened by 50% in the past twenty years. We can examine this problem in depth by looking at income inequality levels. The team at Madison Trust Company calculated the gap in every country around the world and ranked them according to how much of the country’s income is shared by the country’s top 1%. The answers give us a picture of where the gap is wide and where it’s narrowing.
Here are the countries that have the largest share of income share of the richest 1%:
- Maldives wealth inequality – 35.61%
- Mozambique wealth inequality – 31.11%
- Central African Republic wealth inequality – 31.00%
- Mexico wealth inequality – 26.81%
- Cambodia wealth inequality – 26.81%
- Myanmar wealth inequality – 26.49%
- Angola wealth inequality – 25.98%
- Peru wealth inequality – 25.18%
- Bahrain wealth inequality – 24.34%
- Yemen wealth inequality – 24.20%
On the other side of the spectrum, here are the countries with the smallest wealth gaps:
- Norway – 6.87%
- Slovakia – 7.07%
- North Macedonia – 7.45%
- Belgium – 7.45%
- Czechia – 7.61%
- Montenegro – 8.04%
- Macao – 8.21%
- Albania – 8.33%
- Kosovo – 8.35%
- Guinea – 8.63%
We can see from the map that Nordic countries have some of the smallest income inequality gaps, mainly due to progressive taxation policies and strong social safety nets. As for the U.S. it was ranked at #22 overall, but it has one of the biggest income inequality gaps of all developed nations. Norway has the smallest gap as one of the Nordic countries with the strongest taxation policy and a commitment to social welfare. Meanwhile, the Maldives have the largest gap, which isn’t surprising given its reputation as a small island nation that hosts vacation homes for the world’s wealthiest.
