The Gini coefficient in the U.S., as of 2011, was 0.477, according to a U.S. Census report. That’s up from 0.469 in 2010, and 0.397 in 1967, the first year it was reported.
Census officials have broken it down to the county level. The county with the most inequality from 2006 through 2010, as measured by Gini, was East Carroll Parish in Louisiana, at 0.645. The lowest Gini index was measured in Loving County Texas, at 0.207. (Miami-Dade County in Florida had a Gini of 0.503, while New York County, a.k.a Manhattan, in New York had a 0.601 reading).
The Central Intelligence Agency has aggregated Gini data from more than 100 countries, though some of its data can be rather old. It lists Lesotho (as of 1995) with the highest Gini index at .632. Sweden has the lowest Gini index, as of 2005, at .230. A Gini index of 0.477 would put the U.S. near countries like Mexico, Singapore, Ecuador, Madagascar, and China.
The Gini measurement is just one number, and countries could have the same Gini coefficient but have much different populations and economies. In other words, what causes the wage gap in one country might not be translatable to another.
