The World Inequality Report 2022 presents the most up-to-date and complete data on the various facets of inequality worldwide as of 2021: global wealth, income, gender, and ecological inequality.
The analysis is based on several years’ work by more than one hundred researchers from around the world and will be published by the World Inequality Lab.
The data is available in the most complete database on economic inequality, the World Inequality Database. The report includes a foreword by 2019 economic Nobel prize laureates Abhijit Banerjee & Esther Duflo.
What is World Inequality Report?
World Inequality Report is a report by the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics that provides estimates of global income and wealth inequality based on the most recent findings compiled by the World Inequality Database (WID).
WID, also referred to as WID.world, is an open-source database, that is part of an international collaborative effort of over a hundred researchers in five continents.
The World Inequality Report includes discussions on potential future academic research as well as content useful for public debates and policy related to economic inequality.
The first report, entitled World Inequality Report 2018, which was released on December 14, 2017, at the Paris School of Economics during the first WID.world Conference, was compiled by Facundo Alvaredo, Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and Gabriel Zucman based on WID data.
The 300-page report cautions that since 1980, around the globe, there has been an increase in the gap between rich and poor.
In Europe, the increase in inequality increased more moderately while in North America and Asia, the increase was rapid. In the Middle East, Africa, and Brazil, income inequality did not increase but remained at very high levels.

“The COVID crisis has exacerbated inequalities between the very wealthy and the rest of the population. Yet, in rich countries, government intervention prevented a massive rise in poverty, this was not the case in poor countries. This shows the importance of social states in the fight against poverty.”,
– explains Lucas Chancel, lead author of the report.
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Highlights of World Inequality Report 2022
- MENA is the most unequal region in the world, Europe has the lowest inequality levels.
- Nations have become richer, but governments have become poor, when we take a look at the gap between the net wealth of governments and net wealth of the private and public sectors.
- Wealth inequalities have increased at the very top of the distribution. The rise in private wealth has also been unequal within countries and at the world level. Global multimillionaires have captured a disproportionate share of global wealth growth over the past several decades: the top 1% took 38% of all additional wealth accumulated since the mid-1990s, whereas the bottom 50% captured just 2% of it.
- Gender inequalities remain considerable at the global level, and progress within countries is too slow
- Ecological inequality: our data shows that these inequalities are not just a rich vs. poor country issue, but rather a high emitters vs low emitters issue within all countries.
“The World Inequality Reports addresses a critical democratic need: rigorously documenting what is happening to inequality in all its dimensions. It is an invaluable resource for students, journalists, policymakers, and civil society all over the world.” Lucas Chancel adds “If there is one lesson to be learnt from the global investigation carried out in this report, it is that inequality is always political choice.”
Gabriel Zucman states
Highlights of the Author
- This report was authored by Lucas Chancel, who is the co-director of World Inequality Lab.
- It was coordinated by famed French economist Thomas Piketty.
Key Findings of the report
- Report notes that, top 1 % of the India’s population owns more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021.
- The bottom half of the population earns just 13.1 per cent.
- It highlights that, economic reforms and liberalization that India has adopted, have mostly benefited the top 1 percent.
- Report identifies India as a poor and an unequal country, with an affluent elite.
- 1 percent richest people in India hold 22% of the total national income in 2021, while the top 10 % owns 57 per cent of the income.
- Average national income of the Indian adult population is Rs 204,200 in 2021, on the basis of purchasing power parity.
- However, report clarified that average national income of a country masks inequalities.
Income Gap in 2021
The income gap between the top 10 percent and the bottom 50 percent in India is 1 to 22 in 2021. The report noted India as one of the most unequal countries worldwide.
Where does BRICS nations stand?
Among the BRICS nations, South Africa and Brazil have wider income inequalities as compared to India. The income gap between the top 10% and bottom 50% stood at 1 to 63 in South Africa and 1 to 29 in Brazil. In China and Russia, the income gap was 1 to 14.
Scenario in world’s richest nation
The ratio in the richest nation that is the US, is 1 to 17. The richest ten of the global population owns 52 percent of global income. On the other hand, the poorest half of the population earns 8.5 percent of the global income.
Inequality in British India
Inequality in India has widened as compared to British rule. Report finds that Indian income inequality was very high under British colonial rule, during 1858-1947. The top ten percent of the population shared around 50 percent of the national income.
About the author (2022)
Lucas Chancel is an Affiliate Professor at Sciences Po and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics.
Thomas Piketty is Professor at École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) and the Paris School of Economics and Codirector of the World Inequality Lab.
Emmanuel Saez is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Equitable Growth.
Emmanuel Saez is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the Center for Equitable Growth.
Gabriel Zucman is Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley, and Director of the EU Tax Observatory.
Bibliographic information
Title | World Inequality Report 2022 |
Editors | Lucas Chancel, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for Equitable Growth Emmanuel Saez, Associate Professor of Economics Gabriel Zucman |
Publisher | Harvard University Press, 2022 |
ISBN | 0674273567, 9780674273566 |
Length | 320 pages |
Subjects | Business & Economics › Economics › Comparative Business & Economics / Economic Conditions Business & Economics / Economics / Comparative Social Science / Social Classes & Economic Disparity |
World Inequality Report 2022 PDF Download Link
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- https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2021/12/WorldInequalityReport2022_FullReport.pdf
- 0098-21_WIL_RIM_RAPPORT_A4.indb (wid.world)
World Inequality Report is released by which Institution?
World Inequality Report is a report by the World Inequality Lab at the Paris School of Economics that provides estimates of global income and wealth inequality based on the most recent findings compiled by the World Inequality Database (WID)
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