◄Back

# Long description

A line graph titled: Global income inequality: Between vs. within country inequality (Theil index), 1820-2020. The X-axis begins from 1820 and increases to 1850, 1880, 1900, 1920, 1950, 1980, 2000 and 2020. The Y-axis is labelled: Share of global inequality (% of total Theil index) and begins at 0% and increases in sums of 10% up to 100%. On the graph, there is the label: 1820: Between country inequality represents 11% of global inequality. Above the line of the graph is filled with the colour red, and labelled: Within-country inequality. Below the line of the graph is filled with the colour blue, and labelled: Between-country inequality. There is a peak at 1980, and the label: 1980: Between country inequality represents 57% of global inequality. There is another label towards the end of the graph: 2020: Between country inequality represents 32% of global inequality. Below the graph there is the following text: Interpretation: The importance of between-country inequality in overall global inequality, as measured by the Theil index, rose between 1820 and 1980 and strongly declined since then. In 2020, between-country inequality makes-up about a third of global inequality between countries. The rest is due to inequality within countries. Income is measured per capita after pension and unemployment insurance transfers and before income and wealth taxes. Sources and series: wir 2022.wid.world/methodology and Chancel and Piketty (2021).