World Inequality Database

Data source: World Inequality Lab

Description:

The World Inequality Database (WID.world) aims to provide open and convenient access to the most extensive available database on the historical evolution of the world distribution of income and wealth, both within countries and between countries.

The WID was initially created as the The World Top Incomes Database (WTID) in January 2011 with the aim of providing convenient and free access to all the existing series. The WTID expanded to include series on income inequality for more than thirty countries, spanning over most of the 20th and early 21st centuries, with over forty additional countries now under study.

Built to accompany the publishing of the two books Top Incomes: a Global Perspective (2010, Oxford University Press) and Top Incomes over the XX Century (2007, Oxford University Press). The WID offers the most comprehensive set of historical series on wealth inequality available so far.

Last updated by source: 2021-12-07

Dataset type:	Time-Series
Dataset level:	Country

Citation:

When using this dataset, please cite as:

• Alvaredo, F., Atkinson, A. B., Piketty, T., & Saez, E. (2022). World inequality database. WID.world. http://wid.world/data

• Chancel, L., Piketty, T., Saez, E., & Zucman, G. (2022). World inequality report 2022. World Inequality Lab. http://wid.world/

    @misc{top1,
 author = {Lucas Chancel and Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman},
 publisher = {World Inequality Lab},
 title = {World Inequality Report 2022},
 url = {http://wid.world/},
 year = {2022}
}

@misc{top2,
 author = {Facundo Alvaredo and Anthony B. Atkinson and Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez},
 publisher = {WID.world},
 title = {World Inequality Database},
 url = {http://wid.world/data},
 year = {2022}
}

Variables in this dataset:

Top 10% income share

QoG Code: top_top10_income_share

Income share of the top 10% of the population. This refers to the share of pre-tax national income among equal-split adults for the top 10% in each country-year. The pre-tax national income is the sum of all pre-tax personal income flows accruing to the owners of the production factors, labor and capital, before taking into account the operation of the tax/transfer system, but after taking into account the operation of pension system. The central difference between personal factor income and pre-tax income is the treatment of pensions, which are counted on a contribution basis by factor income and on a distribution basis by pre-tax income. The population is comprised of individuals over age 20. The base unit is the individual (rather than the household) but resources are split equally within couples.

More about this variable

Top 1% income share

QoG Code: top_top1_income_share

Income share of the top 1% of the population. This refers to the share of pre-tax national income among equal-split adults for the top 1% in each country-year. The pre-tax national income is the sum of all pre-tax personal income flows accruing to the owners of the production factors, labor and capital, before taking into account the operation of the tax/transfer system, but after taking into account the operation of pension system. The central difference between personal factor income and pre-tax income is the treatment of pensions, which are counted on a contribution basis by factor income and on a distribution basis by pre-tax income. The population is comprised of individuals over age 20. The base unit is the individual (rather than the household) but resources are split equally within couples.

More about this variable