India has emerged as the most unequal country with the top one per cent of the population holding more than one-fifth of the total national income in 2021, while the bottom 50 per cent made just 13.1 per cent, according to World Inequality Report 2022 authored by Lucas Chancel and coordinated by economist Thomas Piketty.
In the preface of the report, Nobel laureate economists Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo said that India was "among the most unequal countries" in the world. The report also underscores the gender inequality in the country. The report observed that the female labour income share is equal to 18 per cent one of the lowest in the world, slightly higher than the Middle East (15 per cent).
The report further revealed that the top 10 per cent of the population holds 57 per cent of the total income while the bottom 50 per cent share has gone down to 13 per cent. The average household wealth in the country stands at ₹983,010. The report added that that the average national income of the Indian adult population is ₹204,200. While the bottom 50 per cent earns ₹53,610, and the top 10 per cent earns more than 20 times (₹1,166,520).
The report noted that income and wealth inequalities have been on the rise nearly everywhere since the 1980s, following a series of deregulation and liberalisation programs that took different forms in different countries. In 2021, after three decades of trade and financial globalisation, global inequalities remain extremely pronounced. “The rise has not been uniform: certain countries have experienced spectacular increases in inequality (including the US, Russia, and India) while others (European countries and China) have experienced relatively smaller rises,” it said.