The Gini Coefficient

The Italian fascist ideologue Corrado Gini (1884-1965), author of the scientific bases of Fascism (1927), introduced the Gini coefficient to measure inequality in income and wealth of those who make up a society. The Gini coefficient is a number ranging from 0 (zero), or zero absolute egalitarianism inequality: all receive an equal share of the cake, and 1: absolute inequality, only one whole takes the cake. In percentage terms, 1 equals 100% of inequality, and 0 to 0% distributive inequality.

According to the Human Development Report (2006), the Gini coefficient is 0.707 Namibia (situation of maximum inequality), the Brazilian 0.571; the Chilean 0.557; that of Mexico 0.546; that of Argentina 0.542; that of Venezuela 0.471; China's 0,447, the US 0.445;the Russian 0.391; the Portuguese 0.385; of Italy 0.36; of France 0,327;that of Spain 0.325; the German 0.283; the Swedish 0.25; Japan's 0.249 and the lowest, the Danish 0.245 (maximum equal sharing situation). According to the graph, the areas that have green colors (northern hemisphere and Australia) have a more equal distribution while as intensify the colors: orange, red, burgundy, distribution becomes more unequal.

Notably globally Chile tops the list of developing countries in terms of inequality, immediately after Brazil, but here is an important dimension to do. 

The Gini coefficient measures the overall distributional terms without separating corresponding to urban and rutal population. This data is very valuable to consider because you can not compare a country like China that has 60% of the rural population, with a country like the US that has less than 10% of rural population. In this regard when compared without taking into account the other variable confuse apples and oranges done.

It is what happens in the case of Chile and Brazil. Chile has more than 80% of urban population while Brazil does not reach 60%. If you take into account these factors, the relationship would change strongly to the detriment of Chile, making it top the lists inequity, inequality and unequal income distribution in the world. 

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This article was published in March 2008