Gini Index

The Gini index, also known as the Gini coefficient, measures the inequality between social classes, expressed as a decimal between 0 and 1 (or a percentage…same thing-ish). Yep...one single number can tell us how equal (closer to 0) or unequal (closer to 1) an economy is.

Specifically, the Gini index measures income and wealth within a population. For example, if everyone in a country earns the same amount of money, then the Gini Index would be zero. In the other extreme, if one person (or, a really tiny group of people compared to the whole group) had all the wealth, while most people had nothing, the Gini index would be equal to one.

Using the Gini index, we can compare numbers to see how economically equal different populations are. For instance, Norway’s Gini index in 2015 was about 0.28 (one of the world’s most economically equal countries today), while Namibia’s was 0.59.

While the Gini Index is useful, it’s good to remember that the calculation to get this single number is based on data provided by these governments, so there will undoubtedly be some bias and error (same with the Happiness Index...all countries want to appear as if their people are happier than those in other countries, right?).