Journal article
Rising income inequality across half of global population and socioecological implications
Nature sustainability, Vol.8(12), pp.1601-1613
12/2025
DOI: 10.1038/s41893-025-01689-4
Abstract
Income inequality is one of the most important measures to indicate socioeconomic welfare and quality of life, and has implications for the environment. Yet, especially at the subnational level, comprehensive global data on income distribution are widely missing. Such data are essential for assessing patterns of inequality within countries and their development over time. Here we created seamless global subnational Gini coefficient and gross national income purchasing power parity per capita datasets for the period 1990-2023 and used these to assess the status and trends of income inequality and income, as well as their interplay. We show that while gross national income has increased for most people globally (94%), inequality has also increased for around 46-59% (depending on the national dataset used) of the global population, while it has decreased for 31-36% and has not shown a significant trend for 10-18%. We illustrate heterogeneities in inequality trends between and within countries, analyse plausible confounding factors related to inequality, and highlight the broad utility of the datasets through a case study that investigates correlations with terrestrial ecological diversity. Our dataset and analyses provide valuable insights for relevant stakeholders to direct future research and make informed decisions at the global, national and subnational levels, addressing societal, economic and environmental challenges caused by inequality.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Rising income inequality across half of global population and socioecological implications
- Creators
- Daniel Chrisendo - Aalto UniversityVenla Niva - Aalto UniversityRoman Hoffmann - University of ViennaSina Masoumzadeh Sayyar - Aalto UniversityJuan Rocha - Stockholm UniversityVilma Sandstrom - University of HelsinkiFrederick Solt - Univ Iowa, Iowa City, IA USAMatti Kummu - Aalto University
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Nature sustainability, Vol.8(12), pp.1601-1613
- DOI
- 10.1038/s41893-025-01689-4
- ISSN
- 2398-9629
- eISSN
- 2398-9629
- Publisher
- NATURE PORTFOLIO
- Number of pages
- 26
- Grant note
- Aalto University
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 12/2025
- Academic Unit
- Political Science
- Record Identifier
- 9985091812002771
Metrics
1 Record Views