Gini Index ranks South Africa

Gini Index ranks South Africa as most unequal country

What do you get when you add World Bank data to some clever folk’s reporting abilities? The Gini Index, the be all and end all of global income equality.

Gini Index ranks South Africa

So, big surprise, SA isn’t all that equal when it comes to income equality. How do we know this? Well, theres this report that’s brought out every now and then called the Gini Index. It measures how far apart the classes are in terms of income.

Using the World Bank information, the index is ranked between 0 and 100, whereby 0 is absolute equality — everyone earns the same — and 100 would be where one person is getting all the dosh and everyone else nothing.

The data included 112 countries and was measured between 2008 and 2013. Data had to be available for a minimum of one complete year.Most of the countries with the highest indexes, and thus the most inequality, were in Africa and Latin America. Eastern and Northern Europe were highly represented in the most equal countries at the other end of the spectrum.

Most Unequal Countries

Gini Index most unequal

The USA and China, the world’s two largest and most powerful economies, fell smack bang in the middle of the list. While there’s a lot we can praise about South Africa, and while we’re making progress in so many societal areas; we’ve still got a very long way to go if we’re going to redress the income equality, a legacy of the pre-1994 governments.

Most Equal Countries

Gini Index most equal countries