On December 7th, 2021, the World Inequality Lab released the World Inequality Report 2022, authored by the Lab’s co-director and economist Lucas Chancel and economists Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman. Through the course of its 10 chapters, the report covers insights on themes like changing global economic inequality, the rise of multimillionaires, the disproportionate burden of labor income discrimination on women, carbon inequalities, tax justice, and sustainability. Some notable statistics from the report yield the following results:
- Income inequality: Globally, the richest 10% of the population currently earns 52% of the global income, whereas the poorest half of the population earns 8% of it. On average, an individual from the top 10% of the global income distribution earns €87,200 (USD122,100) per year, whereas an individual from the poorest half of the global income distribution makes €2,800 (USD3,920) per year.
- Wealth inequality: The poorest half of the global population barely owns any wealth at all, possessing just 2% of the total. In contrast, the richest 10% of the global population own 76% of all wealth. On average, the poorest half of the population owns PPP €2,900 per adult, i.e. USD4,100 and the top 10% own €550,900 (or USD771,300) on average.
- Regional variations in inequality: In Europe, the top 10% income share is around 36%, whereas in MENA it reaches 58%. In between these two levels, we see a diversity of patterns. In East Asia, the top 10% makes 43% of total income and in Latin America, 55%. Moreover, while some countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality (including the US, Russia and India) others like European countries and China have only experienced a little rise.
- Nations have become richer, but governments have grown poorer: Private wealth has grown immensely but the share of the public sector in total national wealth is close or euqal to 0 in rich countries.
- Gender inequalities in labor income: Women’s share of total incomes from work (labor income) neared 30% in 1990 and stands at less than 35% today
The report also includes excerpts from Thomas Piketty’s upcoming book titled, ‘A brief history of inequality‘, slated for release in 2022 in the concluding chapter.
Click here to access the full report.