Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax in United States
United States: Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax was 0.4673 in 2024. ▲ Rising
Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax in United States, 1980–2024
Source: World Inequality Database (WID.world) (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
Analysis
United States recorded 0.4673 for income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in 2024.
That represents a change of down 3.7% over ten years.
Over the whole period, income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in United States peaked at 0.4945 in 2018 and was at its lowest, 0.3723, in 1980.
United States ranks 71st of 109 countries on this measure, in the middle of the range.
The long-run direction has been consistently rising across the 45 years of available data.
Averages by decade
| Decade | Average | Lowest | Highest | Years |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1980s | 0.4168 | 0.3723 | 0.4484 | 10 |
| 1990s | 0.4448 | 0.4339 | 0.4623 | 10 |
| 2000s | 0.4662 | 0.4585 | 0.4782 | 10 |
| 2010s | 0.4841 | 0.4704 | 0.4945 | 10 |
| 2020s | 0.4608 | 0.451 | 0.4673 | 5 |
Countries ranked near United States
More poverty & inequality data for United States
- Number of income/consumption surveys in the past decade available via the World Bank 9 surveys (2025)
- Fertility rate vs. share living in extreme poverty 1.62 live births per woman (2023)
- Cereal yield vs. share in extreme poverty 8,414 kg per hectare (2024)
- Tax revenue as share of GDP vs. income inequality 24.8% (2023)
- Gender Inequality Index 0.169 (2023)
- Share of government consumption in GDP vs. share of population living in extreme poverty 11.7% (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in women 0.0958 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient by sex 0.0958 (2023)
- Lifespan inequality: Gini coefficient in men 0.1179 (2023)
- Income inequality: Atkinson index 0.2393 (2023)
Frequently asked questions
- What is income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in United States?
- Income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax in United States was 0.4673 in 2024, according to World Inequality Database (WID.world) (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data.
- What is the highest income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax recorded in United States?
- The highest recorded value was 0.4945 in 2018.
- What is the lowest income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax recorded in United States?
- The lowest recorded value was 0.3723 in 1980.
- How does United States rank for income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax?
- United States ranks 71st out of 109 countries with data for 2024.
- Is income inequality: gini coefficient before and after tax rising or falling in United States?
- Over the last ten years it is down 3.7%. The long-run trend across the full record is rising.
- Where does this United States data come from?
- The figures come from World Inequality Database (WID.world) (2026) – with major processing by Our World in Data, published as part of Income inequality: Gini coefficient before and after tax. Statizoid updates them automatically from the source API.
Download this data
CSV · JSON — 45 observations, free to reuse under CC BY 4.0 (Our World in Data).
About this data
The Gini coefficient measures inequality on a scale from 0 to 1. Higher values indicate higher inequality. Inequality is measured here in terms of income after taxes and benefits.