Inequalities of outcomes, such as income and wealth, and inequalities of opportunities go hand in hand, largely because wider inequality curbs social mobility and opportunities for the poor and people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Income inequality varies considerably across OECD countries. In 2021, the Gini coefficient ranged from around 0.22 in the Slovak Republic to more than twice that value in Chile and Costa Rica (Figure 6.1). The Nordic and some central European countries had the lowest inequality levels of disposable income, while income inequality was highest among Latin American countries, Türkiye and the United States. Alternative indicators of income inequality suggest similar rankings. The ratio of the average income of the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of the population was 8.4 to 1 on average across OECD countries in 2021.This ratio ranged from 5 to 1 in the Slovak Republic and Slovenia, to over 20 to 1 in Chile and Costa Rica.
Income inequality also varies across partner economies: the Gini ranges from 0.29 in Croatia (below the OECD average) to 0.32 in Bulgaria, and 0.38 in Romania. Income inequality is pronounced in South-Africa where the Gini stood at 0.62 in 2017.
Household wealth is much more unequally distributed than income. On average, households in the top 10% of the wealth distribution own more than half (52%) of all total household wealth, and this share is as high as 79% in the United States (Figure 6.2). In comparison, the richest 10% of income earners get on average close to 25% of all income. While wealth inequality is higher than income inequality in all countries reviewed, countries with lower income inequality levels are not necessarily those with low wealth concentration.
The Opportunities module of the 2022 OECD Risks that Matter survey provides novel insights into people’s concerns about disparities household income and wealth. On average, over 60% of respondents declared that disparities in income and in wealth were too high or far too high in their country (Figure 6.3). In all countries but Latvia and Lithuania, individuals’ average levels of concerns are fairly similar for both income and wealth. In these two countries, the proportion of respondents indicating that income inequality is too high or far too high exceeds by more than 15 percentage points that of wealth inequality.
