The American world map of shame: U.S. Income Inequality Compared To The World

[Jim Lane]

11. Correction re Gini coefficient

It doesn't run from 0.00 to 0.50 -- it runs from 0.00 to 1.00.

If everyone in the society has exactly the same amount (complete equality), the Gini coefficient is zero. If one person has everything and no one else has anything (complete inequality), the Gini coefficient is one. While a coefficient of one is more or less inconceivable, the CIA map does show that several countries are above 0.50. In 2009, the UN estimated that the Gini ratio for the entire world was 0.68. (See ftp://ftp.fao.org/docrep/fao/012/ak968e/ak968e00.pdf (page 2, Table 1), stating the coefficient as a percentage, so reporting 68 rather than 0.68.) Because of differences between countries, the Gini coefficient for the world is higher than that for almost any individual country.

For a full technical explanation of the Gini coefficient, with a graph that makes it easy to understand, see the Wikipedia article.