Gini Index (Inequality) by Country: 2023 World Rankings

The Gini index measures income inequality on a scale from 0 (perfect equality: everyone has the same income) to 100 (perfect inequality: one person has everything). It is the most widely used single-number measure of income distribution and is calculated by the World Bank from household surveys of income or, in many countries, consumption. Lower values mean a more equal distribution. The Nordic countries are among the most equal by this measure, large economies such as China and the United States sit in the middle of the range, and parts of Latin America and southern Africa are the most unequal.

South Africa records one of the highest Gini values in the world, reflecting the lasting economic legacy of apartheid, with wealth still heavily concentrated along racial lines decades after political liberation. Brazil, Colombia and several Central American countries also show very high values, driven by concentrated land ownership, limited social mobility and weak public education. Some of the lowest values are found in Central European countries such as Slovakia, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, and in the Nordic countries, where progressive taxation, strong safety nets and accessible education compress the income distribution.

Several caveats apply when interpreting Gini data. First, the index captures income inequality, not wealth inequality, which is typically much more extreme. Second, household surveys tend to undercount income at both ends of the distribution: the very poor, who are hard to survey, and the very rich, who under-report. Third, values are not perfectly comparable across countries, because some surveys measure income and others consumption, and survey years differ. Despite these limits, the Gini index remains the standard benchmark for international inequality comparisons.