how to measure income inequality
one way to measure income inequality is to compare the income of a large group of high earners for example the top 10 to the national median or average another approach compares the income of a lower earning group say the bottom 10 to the median or average other researchers have begun looking at tax records of those with the highest incomes to draw conclusions about these most affluent slices of society a frequently used tool for measuring income inequality is the gini index it was developed by italian statistician corrado gini in the early 1900s to help quantify and more easily compare income inequality levels across countries of the world 4 the index can range from 0 to 100 with a higher level indicating greater income inequality among a country s population and a lower level indicating less 5the latest available data from the world bank shows south africa reporting one of the highest income inequality dispersions with a gini index level of 63 0 the united states has a gini index level of 39 8 the slovak republic has the world bank s lowest gini index reading at 24 1 6