Which countries have the highest inequality in Latin America?

The issue of inequality began to be the axis of international debates after the end of the Cold War together with the expansionism of globalization, due to the fact that global indices began to increase. Economic inequality is one of the main obstacles to development in the States, since it has its origin in various social and economic aspects, since all this is reflected in the limited access to basic services such as food, housing, health, dress and education.

Being able to specify the concept is a great task, since it encompasses different social aspects in which the precariousness of people is reflected, however, one of the most pragmatic and precise definitions, such as that of Oxfam, defines economic inequality as:

Economic inequality translates into a very uneven availability of economic resources among individuals in society. And with such a discrepant distribution of wealth, where the gap between rich and poor individuals, and the opportunities for each other, is increasing (Oxfam, 2020).

One of the most important indicators that measures the issue of inequality is the Gini Coefficient, an index that is used to measure income inequality within a country, however, it can be used to measure any form of unequal distribution. The Gini coefficient is a number between 0 and 1, where 0 corresponds to perfect equality (Cepal, 2001).

Likewise, it has been suggested that addressing this inequality is an urgent need in the Middle East, South and North Africa, as well as in Latin America, since these are considered the most unequal regions in the world.

Therefore, the objective of this article is to detail which are the most unequal States in the Latin American region based on the Gini Coefficient. The latest official data has been published by the World Bank (WB) in 2020, since in those same official data there is still no record of the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, which unfortunately increased both inequality and poverty in the world.

Now, in general, the region is one of the most unequal globally due to the high concentration of wealth in a small privileged sector of the population, as well as the high rates of corruption, salary income, lack of development, infrastructure in rural areas, among other items.

Own elaboration with data from the World Bank, 2020.

The issue of inequality in Latin America has been a topic of debate, since the nineties with the implementation of neoliberal policies in most of the countries of the region. Despite the fact that in recent years the economy has grown, both at the regional level and at the individual level of the States, this wealth continues to be concentrated in one sector of society, a trait that has historically been common in Latin American countries.