The present and future of global inequality

The 2026 World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos is now in full swing. One topic that is always high on the agenda is inequality. A tiny group of half a million ultra-high net worth individuals–those with more than $30 million in assets, many of whom will be in attendance at Davos–now manages $60 trillion of wealth. The last few years have been particularly kind to this group and they dominate holdings of the AI businesses that are driving global economic growth. One policy question being debated at Davos is whether there will be enough demand for goods and services in a global economy where wealth is so concentrated.

At World Data Lab we have compiled a global database of 194 countries and economies to look into this question. We have collected income and consumption distribution data from every country in the world, modelling the distribution for those countries that do not have surveys conducted by national statistical offices. This is no simple task. Others, notably the World Inequality Report prepared by Thomas Piketty and colleagues, do the same. For all these exercises, judgments need to be made on the indicator of interest (consumption or income, before tax or after, non-income variables), on how to compare across countries and over time, adjust for price differentials, and on how to fill in missing data. Also, there are many indicators of inequality from which to choose: the Gini coefficient, the Theil index, or a modified Palma ratio to name a few commonly used by economists.