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Latest available · compiled 2003

Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation

Each country’s newest reading as of 2003; every row carries its own year · stored as published, never rewritten

The Palma ratio divides the share of income held by a country’s richest 10% by the share held by its poorest 40%. A ratio of 1 means the top tenth hold as much as the bottom four-tenths put together; the most unequal countries run past 7. It is an inequality measure built on the observation that the middle half of most countries holds a fairly steady share, so the fight is at the ends.

Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation covers 69 countries on 2 measures. Namibia is highest, at 6.5412; Sweden is lowest, at 0.8423. The middle country reads 1.4735. Against the 2002 compilation, 43 values changed (20 up, 23 down), 26 countries joined, 25 left.

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Palma Ratio · Latest available · compiled 2003

HighestNamibia

6.5412

LowestSweden

0.8423

Shaded by value in five groups of equal size, darkest at the lowest end.

01Position · derived

The table

Every country and every column of Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation, as published. World Bank Group ranks nobody on this measure; the position is derived here by ordering the published values. “=” marks a shared position.

Showing 25 of 69 countries · select a heading to sort

Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation: every country, as published by World Bank Group.
derived
1NamibiaNAMSouthern Africa6.541212.4073consumption2003.67
2HondurasHNDCentral America · 2003 reading5.452622.5603income2003
3BrazilBRASouth America · 2003 reading5.133619.1499income2003
4PanamaPANCentral America · 2003 reading4.679023.1553income2003
5ParaguayPRYSouth America · 2003 reading4.202113.2052income2003
6EcuadorECUSouth America · 2003 reading3.966515.2966income2003
7ColombiaCOLSouth America · 2003 reading3.906913.7013income2003
8PeruPERSouth America · 2003 reading3.841911.9455income2003
9Dominican RepublicDOMCaribbean · 2003 reading3.612311.5959income2003
10ArgentinaARGSouth America · 2003 reading3.477316.1244income2003
11ChileCHLSouth America · 2003 reading3.455211.0824income2003
12El SalvadorSLVCentral America · 2003 reading3.399923.7213income2003
13Costa RicaCRICentral America · 2003 reading3.105714.7946income2003
14VenezuelaVENSouth America · 2003 reading2.903119.6875income2003
15GambiaGMBWestern Africa2.72448.8534consumption2003.29
16MalaysiaMYSSouth-eastern Asia · 2003 reading2.62779.3721income2003
17PhilippinesPHLSouth-eastern Asia · 2003 reading2.62207.7418income2003
18NepalNPLSouthern Asia2.27965.2841consumption2003.25
19Burkina FasoBFAWestern Africa · 2003 reading2.18426.9852consumption2003
20TürkiyeTURWestern Asia · 2003 reading2.08937.5883consumption2003
21BhutanBTNSouthern Asia · 2003 reading1.95205.5905consumption2003
22IsraelISRWestern Asia · 2003 reading1.94118.4731income2003
23United StatesUSANorthern America · 2003 reading1.92739.2183income2003
24Sierra LeoneSLEWestern Africa1.87295.9148consumption2003.25
25NigeriaNGAWestern Africa1.85987.6634consumption2003.67

02In Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation

At either end

The 5 countries at each end of the headline, then the highest and lowest on each other measure.

Highest

  1. 1Namibia6.5412
  2. 2Honduras5.4526
  3. 3Brazil5.1336
  4. 4Panama4.6790
  5. 5Paraguay4.2021

Lowest

  1. 69Sweden0.8423
  2. 68Denmark0.8843
  3. 67Iceland0.9514
  4. 66Azerbaijan0.9779
  5. 65Belgium0.9893

A higher value is the worse result. The middle country reads 1.4735. “Shared” marks a value another country also holds.

Each measure’s ends

  • 90/10 ratio (90th ÷ 10th percentile of income or consumption)

    HighestEl Salvador23.7213

    LowestAzerbaijan3.0821

    Middle country: 5.5945

032002 → 2003

Since the 2002 compilation

What changed between the 2002 compilation and this one: who joined or left, and how far the headline moved.

  • +26 / −25countries joined / left
  • 43values changed, of 43 in both
  • 20 · 23rose · fell
  • 0unchanged

Rose most

Fell most

+ Australia+ Austria+ Belgium+ Benin+ Burkina Faso+ Bulgaria+ Bhutan+ Chile+ Denmark+ Ecuador+ Spain+ Finland+ Gambia+ Iceland+ Malaysia+ Namibia+ Nigeria+ Norway+ Nepal+ Philippines+ Portugal+ Sierra Leone+ Syria+ Chad+ Tajikistan+ Kosovo− Albania− Bolivia− Botswana− Switzerland− China− Côte d’Ivoire− Czechia− Djibouti− Fiji− Guinea− Guinea-Bissau− Jamaica− Jordan− Laos− Sri Lanka− Lesotho− Maldives− Mexico− Mongolia− Mozambique− Thailand− Uganda− Vietnam− Samoa− Zambia

Changes in value, not in places: a country’s place also moves when others do. Every country’s full history is charted on the statistic page.

04Caveats

Read before you use

What this edition’s numbers are and are not, worked out from the file itself.

How values are stored

  • Readings from many years

    Each country’s newest reading as of 2003, from 2003 to 2003.

  • The position is ours

    World Bank Group publishes values only; the order is this site’s.

  • Nothing missing

    Every one of the 69 countries has every column.

05The files

Download and cite

The table as a file, digit for digit, what this site changed, and a citation for this edition.

Licence in full
  • .csv

    For a spreadsheet or code

    69 rows · 4.1 KB · UTF-8, opens in Excel

    Opens with 11 lines of source notes; the table starts on row 13.

    Download palma-ratio-2003-nations-inquiry.csv
  • ↗

    The publisher’s original

    World Bank Group’s own file, on its own site.

    pip

What this site changed: Reshaped into one row per country: regional and income-group totals are left out, only the columns listed are kept, each row gets its ISO 3166 code, and some country names are brought to one spelling. No value is recalculated, rescaled or rounded.

Licence: CC BY 4.0 · what it allows, in plain words

Cite this edition

World Bank Group (2003). Palma Ratio, 2003 compilation [data set]. As held by Nations Inquiry, https://nationsinquiry.com/datasets/palma-ratio/2003

0622 held

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