Economics
Income Inequality Measurement and the Gini Coefficient
Quick fact
The Gini coefficient is zero if everyone has exactly the same income and 1 if one person has everything. Most countries fall between 0.25 and 0.65, with Denmark around 0.28 and South Africa around 0.63.
Why this is interesting
When you hear 'the top 1% own more than the bottom 90%,' how do economists capture that whole picture in a single number? The Gini coefficient turns the messy reality of income inequality into a neat 0-to-1 scale.