GDP per Capita vs Gini Index

by Catherine Mulbrandon on January 4, 2006

GDPCapitaVSGini
Scatter plot of 113 countries comparing wealth vs income inequality. The red square is the United States.

The L shape of the scatter plot was not what I expected. However, many countries don’t have a recent Gini index (1987 to 2003) while GDP per capita is available for 2003/2004 for most countries.

Definition of Gini index a measure of income inequality.
0 = equal distrubution
100 = one person has everything

Tagged as: Blog, CIA, Distribution of Income, GDP, GDP per Capita, Gini Index, Scatter plot, United States, World

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  • daniel

    Excellent idea for a graph. I only wish that it would popup the identities of other nations when you mouse over them. If that is not practical, then perhaps just label the other outliers and/or major nations.

  • gil

    I find plotting GDP per capita on the horizontal axis and GINI on the vertical leads to greater understanding. There is a surprise in this data, although the GINI is realitively flat to per capita GDP, richer countries are generally more equal (lower GINI score). This is contrary to popular belief. The US is a anomaly with a high relative level of inequality for a high income. I think the inference is poor people are poor because corruption leads to inequality.

  • Michael Sullivan

    It would be interesting to see this on a log-log graph. I suspect the data would group about a relatively straight line sloping down, and the US would appear to be less of an outlier.

  • http://ctroibaza.ru tedintige

    Мдя, ну в в целом из всех куч остстоя что разбросано по инету это наиболее маленькая.

  • David Reber

    Where did you get this data from?

  • David Reber

    What would be the advantage of putting this on a log graph?

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  • R. Todd Belt

    The value of having Gini on the horizontal (abscissa) is that this sets up the concept that shared wealth (GDP/capita in this case) is intuitively a function of inequality.  Which then leads to the next question of “what is the optimal inequality, as measured by Gini, that leads to our highest level of wealth?”  From which we can have a rational debate on various government activities.

    Regarding your corruption statement.  That is intriguing.  I think that affects the “magnitude” of the function.  

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