Economy of The European Union - Gini Index

Gini Index

To date, one of the most commonly used measures of income inequality is the Gini index. The Gini coefficient measures income inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. On this scale 0 represents perfect equality with everyone having exactly the same income and 1 represents perfect inequality with one person having all income. According to the UN (UN), Gini index ratings for countries range from 0.247 in Denmark to 0.743 in Namibia. Most post-industrial nations had a Gini coefficient in the range 0.25 to 0.40. In 2005 the Gini index for the EU was estimated at 0.31 and as a comparison the USA had 0.463.