Wednesday, March 28, 2012

Comparing countries with high income inequality

Here is some data relating to income inequality.  First, the top 10 most unequal from an article in the Huffington Post first posted in May of 2011 - search under income inequality) -

1.  Chile
2.  Mexico
3.  Turkey
4.  United States
5.  Isreal
6.  Portugul
7.  United Kingdom
8.  Italy
9.  Australia
10.  New Zealand

The Huffington Post article was based in part on a 2011 OECD study.  There seems to me to be some inconsistency between the Huff Post top 10 and what the OECD actually says.  So here is how the OECD summarizes their findings.  (The OECD stands for Organization for Economic Development - an organization consisting of 30 democracies) The OECD analyzed their findings by grouping countries into 5 categorys.

1.  Far below average - Denmark and Sweden have the least income inequality.

2.  Below average - Most of the rest of Northern Europe and Australia.

3.  Around average - Korea, Canada, Spain, Japan, Greece, Ireland, New Zealand and the UK.

4.  Above the average -  Italy, Poland, the US and Portugul.

5.  Way above average - Turkey and Mexico.

One can't help but notice that none of countries whose economic instability is rocking the global economic boat are in the below average category.

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