The online World Inequality Database this month unveiled a major update of inequality data for 173 countries, comprising 97% of the world population and 7.5 billion people. Among other things, it throws into sharp relief the growth of inequality in South Africa, which is a testimony to the failures of ANC rule.

First appeared in DM168

An update to the World Inequality Database (WID), a collaborative effort of universities, research centres and statistics offices, adds almost 50 additional countries. (https://wid.world)

"Our data ... covers a more extended period of time, as well as, for each country income estimates for the entire distribution, from the poorest 1% to the richest 0.001%. The data goes up to late 2019, giving a precise picture of the state of global inequality right before the pandemic," WID said.

And what was the global profile of income and wealth inequality on the eve of the pandemic?

"The Middle East and Latin America stand as the world's most unequal regions, with the top 10% of the income distribution capturing, respectively, 56% and 54% of the average national income ... In the Middle East, Gulf countries (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, UAE, Saudi Arabia) have been marked [by] extreme...