World Inequality Report 2026

The report finds that the richest 10 per cent of the world’s population owns three-quarters of all wealth and receives 53 per cent of global income. Whereas, the bottom 50 per cent of the global population holds just two per cent of all wealth and receives only eight per cent of income. Zooming in further shows that the top one per cent earns 2.5 times more income and owns 18 time more wealth than that of the bottom 50 per cent of the world’s population.

There is a great disparity in average monthly incomes across the world’s regions. While North America and Oceania have average monthly incomes of about €3,800 (roughly 3.2 times the world average), South and Southeast Asia have an average of €600 per month. Sub-Saharan Africa fares even worse with an average of just €300 per month. On average, a person in North America and Oceania earns about 13 times more than someone in Sub-Saharan Africa.

Income inequalities persist within regions, too. In every region except Europe, the top one per cent of the population receives more income than the bottom half of the region’s population.

Between 1980 and 2025, global income groups have diversified: Europe, North America and Oceania’s dominance in the top income groups has declined, while China’s share in the top one per cent income group has grown from one per cent to five per cent. India, by contrast, has lost relative ground: in 1980, a larger part of its population was in the middle 40 per cent, but today almost all are in the bottom 50 per cent earners of the world.

Over the past 30 years, the world’s wealth has grown, but this growth has been almost entirely concentrated in the private sector. Public wealth has remained at around 80-90 per cent of world income, while private wealth grew from about 350 per cent to over 500 per cent. East Asia is the only region with substantial and growing public wealth; in North America and Oceania, public wealth is negative, meaning that governments’ liabilities exceed their assets.

Globally, women earn just about one-third of total earnings generated by labour (labour income) today. Europe, North America and Oceania, and Russia and Central Asia record female labour incomes at around 40 per cent. However, the figure falls to less than 25 per cent in South Asia, the Middle East and parts of Africa.

When unpaid domestic work is considered, women earn only 32 per cent of what men earn per working hour, compared to 61 per cent when it is not considered. The inclusion of unpaid domestic work also reveals that women work more hours than men in all regions, with gaps ranging from 6-7 hours (Europe, North America and Oceania) to 12-13 hours (Middle East and North Africa, East Asia, South and Southeast Asia) per week.

The ratio of employed women’s average income to employed men’s average income (gender earnings ratio) increased marginally from 69 per cent in 1990 to 71 per cent in 2025. The gender earnings gap was lowest in Middle East and North Africa and Latin America, where women earn 84 per cent and 81 per cent respectively of what men earn. It was highest in Sub-Saharan Africa and South and Southeast Asia, where women earn 66 per cent of what men earn.

The rich and poor contribute unequally to climate change. Traditionally, emissions estimates are based on consumption of goods and services; an ownership–based approach assigns emissions based on private capital ownership. Under the ownership-based approach, the top 10 per cent of the population accounts for 77 per cent of emissions, and the top one per cent accounts for 41 per cent. When emissions are based on consumption, their share reduces to 47 and 15 per cent of overall emissions, respectively.

The report finds India to be among the most unequal countries in the world, with the top 10 per cent of its population capturing about 58 per cent of national income and holding 65 per cent of total wealth. Female labour participation in the country also remains very low at 15.7 per cent, showing no improvement over the past decade.

Focus and Factoids by Budhaditya Bhattacharya.