Back Top 20% of EU earns 5 times more than bottom 20%

15 March 2017

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Logo Statistics ExplainedWide inequalities in the distribution of income were apparent in the EU in 2015: the top 20 % of the population, those with the highest equivalised disposable income, received 5.2 times as much income as the bottom 20 %.

This ratio varied considerably across Member States. The ratio stood at less than 4.0 in Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and Belgium, to 6.0 or more in Portugal, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, Spain, Bulgaria and Lithuania, peaking at 8.3 in Romania.

For more information see Eurostat's Statistics Explained article on income distribution.

For more information on equivalised disposable income see glossary

 

Inequality of income distribution, 2015