The country results for the decade from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s demonstrate that it is possible for tax-benefit systems to be quite effective at stabilising inequality even during periods of rapidly growing market-income disparities. The extent of inequality cushioning was strongest in Canada, Denmark, Finland and Sweden, where trends towards more extensive government redistribution offset more than 70% of the rise in market-income inequality up until the mid-1990s. For instance, in Finland, greater equalisation through taxes and benefits offset more than three quarters of the 23% increase in market-income inequality up until 1995, but by 2004, this has dropped to 50%.