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New updates to the World Income Inequality Database (WIID)

The UNU-WIDER World Income Inequality Database ― widely known by its acronym, WIID ― provides the most comprehensive set of income inequality statistics available. It presents detailed information on income inequality for developed, developing, and transition countries. The latest version of the WIID can be downloaded here. The newest version updates the 31 March 2021 release to include the most recent available data (see version note for details).

This update also improves the WIID Companion datasets, available since 31 March 2021. The WIID Companion offers a user-friendly, curated set of standardized inequality statistics. In the WIID Companion, most of the necessary data selection and adjustment needed to analyse, describe, or compare levels of inequality between countries or over time has already been taken care of by UNU-WIDER’s inequality and data experts. 

The companion consists of two datasets. The first is a country-level inequality dataset that contains a single series per country on the net per capita income distribution. The second reports the global income distribution. Read more about the WIID Companion here.  

About the WIID

For more than 20 years, the WIID has been used for research on global inequality. It has been used to analyse inequality trends across countries and to study the relationships between inequality and, for example, economic growth and development, public sector expansion, political conflict, religiosity, etc.

Initially compiled in 1997–99 for the UNU-WIDER-UNDP project Rising income inequality and poverty reduction: Are they compatible? and published in September of 2000, the WIID is a major public good which contributes to understanding inequality and monitoring progress towards the achievement of reduced inequalities in line with Sustainable Development Goal 10.

Database composition