In 2010, Oxfam calculated that the world had become so unequal that the 388 richest people together owned as much as the poorest 50% of the planet’s population.
By 2015, this was no longer the case. According to the charity’s latest research, published on Monday, just 62 individuals now have the equivalent combined wealth of the world’s poorest 50% - that’s 3.6 billion people. Here’s what that looks like:
This increasing concentration of wealth is just the most startling aspect of a much wider global wealth gap revealed by the new research. Between 2000 and 2015, the world got $133 trillion wealthier — equivalent to about an extra $19,000 for each person on the planet.
But the wealthiest 1% took $68 trillion of this increase – almost half – for themselves, an average of $762,700 each. The rest of the top 10% took another $48 trillion, for an average of $72,600 each. The remaining 90% of the world’s population were left with just $17 trillion between more than six billion people.
Referring to “the global 1%” raises in many heads the idea of speedboats, mansions on three continents and a swarm of butlers. The reality is very different — which you can see for yourself below. Our tool asks for your income (what you earn each year), rather than your wealth (the total value of everything you earn), but does serve to show you where you sit compared to the rest of the world.
