5 countries with the widest wealth gaps

[liberal N proud]

These nations have the largest income inequality between their richest and poorest citizens. And yes, the U.S. makes the list.

Countries of all sizes have large wealth gaps


There’s been a lot of talk of late about the rising gap between the rich and poor in the U.S. But how does that gap stack up against the rest of the world?

Based on Gini index figures of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, the United States of America — the land of opportunity — does have one of the most uneven income distributions in the developed world. Iceland tops the list as the most egalitarian.

The Gini index measures how much an economy deviates from a state of perfect equality where everyone has the same income. A score of zero indicates perfect equality, and a score of one indicates extreme inequality.

Gini index scores can be measured before and after taxes and transfer payments, which are often designed to limit inequality. But according to Chad Stone, chief economist at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), a Washington, D.C.-based think tank, the economy alone is what really determines income inequality. "It's the whole economy. It's the fact that different people have different skills," Stone said.

http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002

No. 5: Israel
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002


No. 4: United States
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002


No. 3: Turkey
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002

No. 2: Mexico
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002

No. 1: Chile
http://money.msn.com/investing/5-countries-with-the-widest-wealth-gaps?gt1=33002

[Mnemosyne]

1. No surprise, is there? nt

[pampango]

2. The best 3: Denmark, Sweden and Norway - no surprises there. Top 10 had some surprises (for me).

Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria, Finland, Germany, Iceland and Ukraine. What was not a surprise is that all the top 10 are European countries. After a disastrous 5 years of EU 'austerity', Europe still leads in income equality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_income_equality#OECD_countries

While billionaires seem to dominate Ukrainian politics there must not be enough of them to skew the income equality statistics as I would have expected.