income ratio ppp maps

http://ucatlas.ucsc.edu/income/rtioppp.html

Stable lead of West, advance in East Asia, growing gap for Africa, South America and Eastern Europe

These maps, original to the Atlas of Global Inequality, show the ratio of income in one country to the world mean. Countries colored red have less than one quarter of the world mean income. Countries colored dark blue have more than four times mean world income. The remaining colors indicate incomes between these extremes: dark pink (0.26 — 0.75), light pink (0.76-1.25) and light blue (1.26-4).

Income is here measured as GDP/capita (purchasing power parity). This is a measure of average national output of goods and services per person. Purchasing power parity means that outputs are compared across countries using the cost of a common set of commodities for each country. The global mean is the total global GDP (measured at purchasing power parity) divided by total world population.

What the maps suggest

Stable lead of industrialized North: North America, Northwest Europe, Japan, and Australia, have a stable position between 1980 and 1999 at more than 3 times mean world income.

Worsening positions of Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe: In Africa, the number of countries below one quarter of world mean income rises sharply between 1980 and 1990 and continues to rise, though less markedly up to 1999. In Latin and Central America in 1980, 6 countries including the largest countries have GDP/capita incomes between 1.25 and 3 times mean world income. By 1990 and still in 1999, only Argentina is left in this category. As this presentation goes on line, in February 2002, Argentine economy is in crisis and unlikely to maintain that position. When data became available in 1990 for the former soviet socialist states of Eastern Europe, most were recorded at incomes just above the world mean (1.25 to 3). By 1999, many, including Russia, had fallen back to positions around the mean (0.75-1.25).

Growing output/incomes in Asia: In 1980, most of Asia falls below one quarter of the global mean. All of South Asia and China are in this lowest income category. By 1990, India, China and some other countries have risen to the range between one half and three quarters of world mean GDP/capita. The rise of the East Asian ‘miracle economies’ is not prominently represented in these maps, partly because several of the states are too small to show on a world map, and partly because the 1997 economic collapse is reflected in the data for 1999. Nevertheless, South Korea can be seen to move from below (0.25 to 0.75) mean GDP/capita in 1980 to above world mean (1.25 — 3) by 1990.

Note

These data do not represent income inequalities within countries. Each country is represented by a national mean, GDP(PPP) divided by the population. Strictly, GDP is a measure of output, rather than income. Here we follow common usage of referring to GDP/capita as a measure of income because it represents the productivity level of an economy and, therefore, an upper limit on (equally distributed) incomes.