Change in the Division of Wealth Between 1980 and 2012

Description:

Related blog post:

Inequality in America

Discussion:

The share of the wealth held by the bottom 90% of us shrunk from 32.9% to 22.8% between 1980 and 2012. The share of the next 9% of us also shrunk- from 42.8% to 35.4%. The share held by each segment of the top 1% increased. The share held by the bottom nine tenths of the top 1% increased from 16.3% to 19.8%, the share held by the bottom nine tents of the top 0.1% increased from 5.4% to 10.8%, and the share of the top 0.01% more than quadrupled from 2.6% to 11.2%.

To give a point of reference, in 2012, the top 1% was those who have a net worth of $3,964,000 or more. The top 0.1% starts at $20 million and the top 0.01% starts at $111 million.

This data is drawn from the data accompanying Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman's paper Wealth Inequality in the United States since 1913: Evidence from Capitalized Income Tax Data (2014) available at the link on the left.

This chart shows the change in each bracket's share of the nation's wealth. You can also see the change in each bracket's real absolute wealth here.

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Wealth

Inequality

Change in the Division of Wealth Between 1980 and 2012

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