Unequal from any angle

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Unequal from any angle
A closer look at the income gap

Worst than it should be

Around 33 percent of Latin America's population lives on a per capita income of $2 a day or less. This chart shows how much that percentage would drop if the income distribution pattern in the region were like other parts of the world. The comparison to Eastern Europe is particularly striking because per capita income in that region is comparable to Latin America's. (Source: Londoño and Székely. 1997)

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A question of schooling
No variable seems to explain more about the causes of inequality in Latin America than education. This graph shows the population distribution by level of education in 1990 of people 25 years of age or older --most of the region's work force. Note that workers with little or no education are the majority in half the listed countries, a fact that will perpetuate inequality for years to come. (Source: IDB household surveys)

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Rural disadvantage
There's a reason for the continuing migration of Latin America's rural families to large cities. Even controlling for variables such as education, experience and gender, urban jobs pay between 113 percent and 44 percent more than those in the countryside. This chart presents estimates of the size of the labor income gap between urban and rural areas. It shows that the difference is greatest in the region's two largest economies. (Source: IDB household surveys)

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Bad for democracy
If people who live in severely unequal societies become disenchanted with democracy, they may support a more authoritarian type of government. In this chart, the responses to a survey where people were asked which form of government they prefer are related to a country's Gini coefficient, which measures income inequality. (Higher gini scores indicate greater inequality; see related article on this issue). Democracy is preferred the most in Costa Rica and Uruguay, where inequality is least pronounced. The opposite is true in Brazil, Guatemala, paraguay and Ecuador. (Source: Latinobarómetro and IDB household surveys)