India is the world’s fourth most equal society, says World Bank report

IN A DRAMATIC turnaround, India has emerged as one of the most equal societies in the world, outshining major global economies like the US and China, and ranked as the fourth most equal society in the world.

- FAWZIA MOODLEY

According to the World Bank's Spring 2025 Poverty and Equity Brief, India with a Gini Index of 25.5 is close to joining the global club of “low inequality” countries - the Slovak Republic (24.1), Slovenia (24.3), and Belarus (24.4), and more equal than every member of the developed G7 and the wider G20.

Shockingly, the world’s largest economy, the US, falls within the “high inequality” group of nations with a Gini score of 41.1 while South Africa, with a Gini index of 63.0 is the world’s “most unequal” society.

The World Bank ranking pitches India as a country with “moderately low” inequality. Moreover, India emerges as a more equal society than all the other 167 countries (excluding the top three) for which World Bank data is available. The country is 10 points higher than China, and 15 points higher than the United States.

According to the report, 30 countries have a “moderately low” score of between 25 and 30. They include four Nordic countries - Poland, Europe's fast-growing economy, is at 28.9 while Belgium, the European Union's headquarters, stands at 26.4, with the United Arab Emirates having a Gini score of 26.4. Countries with a Gini Index of 30 to 40 are deemed to have “moderately high” inequality, and the World Bank report places 87 countries, ranging from Nepal and Croatia to Jamaica and Sweden, in this category.