The Inequality World Cup

By Centre for Poverty Analysis

On 04 July 2014

According to Oxfam’s recently published Inequality World Cup Wall Chart, “world leaders need to do more to ensure a level playing field between rich and poor”.

This chart was worked out using the Palma ratio – a technique used to assess how income in a country is divided between rich and poor.

Inequality World Cup Wall Chart

Source: Oxfam, 2014

Having the smallest gap between rich and poor, Belgium comes out on top beating Germany.

England pays the penalty for the failure of successive governments in tackling the growing gap between rich and poor.

Honduras, Colombia, Costa Rica, Chile and Argentina, as well as the host nation and five times World Cup winner Brazil earn themselves inequality red cards.

Inequality red cards earned by Latin American countries indicate the large gap between the richest 10% and the poorest 40% of the population.

Eight Latin Americans appear in the Forbes list of the 100 richest people, with a combined wealth of more than £108 billion, while 164 million people in the region are living in poverty.

The world’s richest 85 people now own as much as the poorest half of the world’s population. With rules still largely work in favour of the rich, the world leaders must urgently act to prevent the increasing inequality levels.

Source:

BBC, 11th June 2014. “England out of ‘inequality World Cup’ in second round”. Online. Accessed 9th July 2014.  http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-27789197,

Guardian, 11th June 2014. “Belgium will win 2014 World Cup, says

Oxfam (if it was based on inequality)”. Online. Accessed 9th July 2014. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jun/11/belgium-win-2014-world-cup-oxfam-inequality,

Oxfam, 11th June 2014. “England crash out in 2nd round of Oxfam’s inequality World Cup”. Online. Accessed 9th July 2014. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/media-centre/press-releases/2014/06/inequality world-cup