And (Corbyn take note) Britain shares wealth more fairly than France
WEALTH is shared more fairly in Britain than most other Western nations, according to figures from the World Bank.
They show that income inequality in the UK is less marked than in nations including France, Australia and Italy.
Out of 157 countries surveyed by the international organisation, Britain comes 39th.
But among the G7 club of wealthiest nations, only two fare better than Britain. These are Japan in 36th position and Germany in 22nd place.
The figures are at odds with the Left-wing argument that Britain is one of the most economically divided nations in the world.
Jeremy Corbyn has called for a maximum wage law to reduce inequality in the UK.
In January, the Labour leader said: ‘We have the worst levels of income disparity of most of the OECD countries. It is getting worse.
‘And corporate taxation is a part of it. If we want to live in a more egalitarian society and fund our public services, we cannot go on creating worse levels of inequality.’
In fact, the World Bank figures show the UK is one of the least divided countries in the world when it comes to wages.
Income inequality is measured using a system called the ‘Gini coefficient’. Under this system, a score of 0 represents perfect equality – or everyone earning the same amount of money. A score of 100 represents total inequality.
The World Bank statistics show that the UK has a Gini coefficient of 32.6 – just between Ireland and Nepal. Japan’s score is 32.1 and Germany’s 30.1.
This compares with France, which is marginally worse than Britain on 33.1 – 43rd position on the league table.
Despite often being held up as a bastion of fairness, Canada is 49th on the list, with a score of 33.7. Australia is even further down, with a score of 34.9.
The World Bank league table shows that other countries faring far worse than the UK include India on 35.1, Italy on 35.2 and Indonesia on 35.6. Turkey stands at 40.2, Russia on 41.6, China on 42.2 and Argentina 42.7.
One of the worst performers is the US, which languishes at 108th on the league table with a Gini score of 46.1.
Mexico is even worse at 48.2, Brazil is 48.4 and South Africa is significantly further down the table on 63.4. The island state of Comoros has the worst score in the world.
The best-performing countries tend to be in Scandinavia and the Low Countries. Ukraine has the lowest inequality in the world, with a score of 24.6. It is followed by Slovenia, Norway, Belarus and the Czech Republic.
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