Rising Within-Country Income Inequality in Recent Decades
While extreme poverty has seen a global decline, income inequality within countries has not only persisted but has markedly increased in recent decades. This trend is visible in income distribution visualizations, such as those from 2014, which reveal a substantial gap between the top 10% of earners and the rest of the population in many affluent and middle-income nations. This disparity can be quantified using the rich/poor ratio, which compares the average income of the wealthiest 10% to the poorest 10%. For instance, this ratio has been shown to be relatively low in egalitarian countries like Norway (5.4) while being much higher in places like the United States (16) and Botswana (145).
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