Extreme inequality and human rights 2015, para. 5

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Economic inequality can be used to refer to a range of inequalities relating to the distribution of income (from labour or capital) or wealth (such as financial assets or land) between individuals in a society. Economic inequalities are often expressed using the Gini coefficient of inequality, which varies between 0 (expressing perfect equality) and 1 (expressing perfect inequality: for instance when one individual owns all the wealth in a society), but there are a multitude of other ways to measure and present economic inequalities. The magnitude of the problem of economic inequalities is dependent on what exactly is being measured and how. An indicator measuring only labour income inequality may be ineffectual if those in the upper quintile or decile derive their income from wealth instead of labour. Measuring wealth inequality by looking at domestic tax data may lead to different results than if wealth distribution is measured by taking only household surveys into account.
Legal status
Non-negotiated soft law
Body
Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights
Document type
Special Procedures' report
Means of adoption
N.A.
Topic(s)
  • Equality & Inclusion
Person(s) affected
  • N.A.
Year
2015
Paragraph type
Other
Paragraph number
5