Between 2000 and 2024, the world’s richest 1% captured 41% of all new wealth, while the bottom half of the global population gained just 1%, according to a new G20 report released ahead of the G20 leaders’ summit later this month.
Commissioned by President Cyril Ramaphosa and co-ordinated by the extraordinary committee of independent experts on global inequality, the report highlights the need for “rewriting tax rules to ensure fair taxation of multinationals and the ultrawealthy”.
The report finds 83% of countries (representing 90% of the global population) meet the World Bank’s definition of high inequality. These countries are seven times more likely to experience democratic decline than more equal societies.
Drawing on data from the World Inequality Lab, an analysis shows that the richest 1% have increased their average wealth by $1.3m since 2000, while the poorest 50% gained just $585 over the same period, adjusted for inflation. Though income gaps between individuals have narrowed due largely to growth in China, the wealth divide between the Global North and South remains substantial.
The study calls for the establishment of an independent international panel — modelled on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — to monitor inequality trends, assess their causes and consequences, and evaluate policy responses for governments and global institutions.
The report warns that successive crises, including the Covid-19 pandemic, the war in Ukraine and rising trade tensions, have created a “perfect storm” that is intensifying poverty and inequality. One in four people globally now regularly skip meals, even as billionaire wealth reaches record highs.
“The world understands that we have a climate emergency; it’s time we recognise that we face an inequality emergency too,” said Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, who chaired the six-member expert committee behind the report.
“It isn’t just unfair and undermining societal cohesion — it’s a problem for our economy and our politics too. Our committee felt strongly that some of the worst effects of inequality are on democracy,” he said, adding that inequality was a “crisis in need of concerted action”.
“The necessary step to taking this action is for policymakers, political leaders, the private sector, journalists and academia to have accurate and timely information and analysis of the inequality crisis.”
Imraan Valodia, professor in economics, pro vice-chancellor for climate, sustainability & inequality at Wits University and one of the six independent experts, said, “Every country has scope to address inequality at the national level, and it is in every country’s strategic interest to co-operate internationally.”
The report outlines several areas for policy action by the G20 and its members, including:
- Reforming international economic rules such as intellectual property and tax frameworks to ensure multinationals and the ultrawealthy pay fair shares.
- National action, such as pro-worker regulation, curbing excessive corporate concentration, taxing large capital gains, investing in public services, and implementing more progressive tax and spending policies.
- Exploring new models of co-operation on tax, trade and the green transition amid growing geopolitical volatility.
“While there is a wealth of academic literature about inequality, there is not a single central body that assesses the global state of inequality,” Valodia noted.
The committee submitted the report to Ramaphosa on Tuesday afternoon.
According to the president, the report “should be seen as a blueprint for greater equality” and as a document that places “inequality on the international agenda”.
“It correctly asserts that inequality is, in the end, a betrayal of people’s dignity, an impediment to inclusive growth and a threat to democracy itself.”
He said the report provided the government with “clear actions that we can take”, adding that the UN had also been briefed on its contents. “We will be calling for an institution to be set up,” he said.
“This report is a work of great quality and significance, and it will go down in history as one of the very important reports … to come out of a group of experts,” Ramaphosa said.
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