According to the World Bank’s spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, India is the fourth most equal country in the world after the Slovak Republic, Slovenia and Belarus on the basis of Gini Index score.
India’s Global Standing in Equality
- Achieved greater income equality with Gini score of 25.5 (2022-23), improvement from 28.8 (2011-12).
- It has better performed than G7 and G20 country (E.g. China (35.7) and United States (41.8)).
- India falls into the ‘moderately low’ inequality category (Gini scores between 25 and 30), and is only a fraction away from joining the “low inequality” group.
- Brief also highlighted that Extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15 per day) fell from 16.2% in 2011-12 to 2.3% in 2022-23, lifting 171 million people above this line.
- Under WB’s revised extreme poverty threshold of $3.00 per day, the 2022-23 poverty rate would be adjusted to 5.3%.
About Gini Index
- Measures the extent to which the distribution of income or consumption among individuals or households within an economy deviates from a perfectly equal distribution.
- A Gini index of 0 represents perfect equality, while an index of 100 implies perfect inequality.
- Graphically Gini Index can be explained by the Lorenz curve.
- A Lorenz curve plots the cumulative percentages of total income received against the cumulative number of recipients, starting with the poorest individual or household.
