Data Source
The primary dataset used on Economic News Portal is the Global Economic Inequality and Poverty (1980-2024) dataset, originally compiled from the World Inequality Database (WID) and distributed . This dataset covers 199 countries and territories with annual observations spanning 45 years.
Metrics Explained
Top 1% Income Share
The percentage of total national pre-tax income earned by the top 1% of the adult population. This is the most widely used measure of income concentration at the very top of the distribution. A higher value indicates greater concentration of income among the wealthiest individuals.
Top 10% Income Share
The percentage of total national pre-tax income earned by the top decile (10%) of the adult population. This broader measure captures the upper class and upper-middle class share of income.
Bottom 50% Income Share
The percentage of total national pre-tax income earned by the bottom half of the adult population. This metric reflects how much of the economic output flows to the majority of workers. A lower value indicates that the bottom half receives a smaller portion of national income.
Gini Index
A statistical measure of income inequality ranging from 0 (perfect equality, where everyone earns the same) to 100 (maximum inequality, where one person earns everything). Most countries fall between 25 and 65. The Gini index is available for approximately 24% of country-year observations in our dataset.
GDP Per Capita
Gross Domestic Product divided by the total population, expressed in current US dollars. This provides a rough measure of average economic output per person, though it does not reflect income distribution.
Poverty Rate
The percentage of the population living below the international poverty line. Available for approximately 24% of country-year observations.
Data Processing
Our data pipeline works as follows:
- Ingestion: The raw CSV dataset is imported into a structured database table with appropriate data types and indexes for efficient querying.
- Validation: Null values are preserved as-is (not converted to zero) to accurately represent missing data. Country names are standardized.
- Analysis: For each country, we compute trend direction (increasing, decreasing, or stable) based on the percentage change between earliest and latest available data points. We classify inequality levels using the top 1% income share: low (<7%), relatively low (7-10%), moderate (10-15%), high (15-20%), and very high (>20%).
- Comparison: Global and regional averages are computed for each year from available data. Country rankings are determined within each year based on countries with non-null data for the relevant metric.
- Content generation: Narrative descriptions use threshold-based qualitative labels derived from statistical comparisons, ensuring each country profile contains unique, data-driven text.
Update Frequency
We check for updates to the source dataset on a weekly basis. When new data is available, affected country profiles are automatically regenerated with updated metrics, comparisons, and narrative descriptions. The “Last updated” date on each page reflects when the content was last regenerated from fresh data.
Limitations
Not all metrics are available for all countries. Income share data (top 1%, top 10%, bottom 50%) is available for 184 of 199 countries. The Gini index and poverty rate are available for approximately 24% of all country-year combinations. We clearly indicate when data is unavailable rather than substituting estimates.
Pre-tax income shares may not fully capture the redistributive effects of taxes and government transfers. For a complete picture of living standards, these figures should be considered alongside post-tax income data and non-monetary benefits.