Global inequality is lowest in 150 years

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Data: Branko Milanovic. Chart: Axios Visuals Driven by a rising China and India, this century has seen a stunning decrease in global inequality — bringing it down to levels not seen since the 1870s. That's the conclusion by Branko Milanovic, one of the world's foremost inequality researchers, Axios chief financial correspondent Felix Salmon writes from an important essay by Milanovic in Foreign Affairs. Why it matters: The U.S. has only about 4% of the world's population. Increasing equality is good for the planet, but foreshadows a waning of U.S. hegemony. ? By the numbers: Inequality is measured using the Gini coefficient, which runs on a scale from 0 (perfect equality) to 100 (where one person would have all of the world's income). On that scale, inequality fell from 69 in 2000 to 60 in 2018 — and is almost certainly even lower today. That means the world looks more equal than at any point since about 1875. ?? What's happening: In 2018, for every 100 Americans earning more than the median U.S. income, about 25 Chinese people earned that much. Within the next 20-30 years, the number of Chinese people earning more than the U.S. median will reach, then surpass the number of Americans. ?? But it's not just China getting richer. "In the 1970s, India's share of global GDP was less than three percent, whereas that of Germany, a major industrial power, was seven percent," notes Milanovic. "By 2021, those proportions had been swapped." Go deeper: Read the Foreign Affairs essay ...