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Wealth & Inequality

Wealth is more concentrated, and the gap between rich and poor continues to widen. In this section: a comparison of the world's largest corporations and the most powerful countries; distribution of wealth; income inequality; prison incarceration rates; and use of police force in the US.
Revenue, Debt, Inequality, and CO2 Emissions of the most Powerful Countries and Corporations The above chart compares the world's largest trans-national corporations with the wealthiest countries and nuclear powers: Revenue, Debt, Wealth Inequality, and CO2 Emissions.
GDP per Capita

Percentage of the Population Living in Slums

Although the proportion of the urban population living in slums worldwide fell from 28% in 2000 to 23% in 2014, the number of people living in slums rose from 792 million to an estimated 880 million over the same period. In Least Developed Countries, nearly two-thirds (62%) of urban dwellers live in slum conditions.

The UN defines a slum household as a group of individuals living under the same roof with one or more of the following conditions: lack of access to improved water; lack of access to improved sanitation; insufficient living area; and lack of durability of housing.
Net Worth of Known Billionaires In 2021, the number of billionaires on Forbes’ annual list of the world’s wealthiest rose to 2,755—660 more than a year ago. Total worth is $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion on the 2020 list.
Percentage of Wealth Held by Richest and Poorest Americans
Net Worth of American Households
American Household Income Distribution
The Wealthiest Americans
Prison Incarceration Rates
Prison Population and Race in the US Chart data does not include the 746,000 prisoners held in local jails. 74% of those in local jails have not been convicted of any crime—the majority of whom are being held because of the inability to raise bail. Others not included are those held in juvenile correctional facilities, immigration detention facilities, Indian Country jails, military prisons, civil commitment centers, state psychiatric hospitals, and prisons in the U.S. territories.
People Killed by Police in the US In 2018 in the United States, 996 people were killed by police, including: 399 White people, 209 Black people and 148 Hispanic people.
In 2019, 1,004 were killed by police including: 370 White people, 235 Black people, and 158 Hispanic people.
As of August 30, 2020, 661 people have been killed by police, including: 242 White people, 123 Black people, and 80 Hispanic people.
Racial Share of People Killed by Police in the US
After analysing several datasets, one non-governmental study concluded that 1,112 people were killed by police in the US in 2019. This number is difficult to determine, as many measures exist to prevent agencies from achieving an accurate count. Some of the largest datasets are primarily being gathered by journalists, and are often flawed or incomplete. No law requires local agencies to submit reports, and some agencies do not report. A bill first introduced to the US Congress in 2015, which would require every law enforcement agency in America to report all police shootings and deaths to the federal government, has failed to pass and was not re-introduced in 2019. In 2014, the FBI was mandated to begin its Uniform Crime Report, which depends on voluntary reporting from over 18,000 law enforcement agencies. The Bureau of Justice found that the FBI statistics under-reported the number of arrest-related deaths by an average of 545 deaths per year.

Lifetime Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the US

A 2018 study using available data on police-involved deaths created models to estimate the lifetime risk of being killed by police. For young men of colour, police use of force is among the leading causes of death.

Among all groups, black men and boys face the highest lifetime risk of being killed by police—about 1 in 1,000 over the life course, or about 96 per 100,000.

Risks to other groups are as follows:
American Indian/Alaska Native men and boys—between 36 and 81 per 100,000;
Hispanic/Latino men and boys—about 53 per 100,000;
White men and boys—about 39 per 100,000; Asian/Pacific Islander men and boys—between 9 and 23 per 100,000.

Sources

Revenue, Debt, Inequality, and CO2 Emissions of the most Powerful Countries and Corporations Table:
TNCs revenues and profits: Fortune Global 500, fortune.com/global500/2019/
Country revenues, external debt, current account balance: CIA Factbook 2019, www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook
Nuclear Weapons: Federation of American Scientists, fas.org
CO2 emissions: Global Carbon Project, cited at Our World in Data, ourworldindata.org/co2-and-other-greenhouse-gas-emissions;
Paris Agreement: UNFCC, https://unfccc.int/
Income share (most current year avail.): World Bank Development Indicators, data.worldbank.org/indicator

GDP per Capita Chart:
World Bank national accounts data, and OECD National Accounts data; data.worldbank.org/indicator/NY.GDP.MKTP.KD; www.worldbank.org/en/country/mic

Percentage of the Population Living in Slums Text:
Environmental Research Foundation, www.ejnet.org/rachel/rhwn256.htm

UNESCO World Water Assessment Programme, Office for Global Water Assessment; www.unesco.org/water/wwap

Net Worth of Known Billionaires Chart:
Forbe’s World Billionaires List 2020; https://www.forbes.com/billionaires/
Institute for Policy Studies: "Billionaire Bonanza 2020: Wealth Windfalls, Tumbling Taxes, and Pandemic Profiteers", April 23, 2020; https://ips-dc.org/billionaire-bonanza-2020/

Percentage of Wealth Held by Richest and Poorest Americans Chart:
National Bureau of Economic Research; cited at: inequality.org/facts/wealth

Net Worth of American Households Chart:
Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve), www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm;
US Census Bureau; www.census.gov/

American Household Income Distribution Chart:
US Census Bureau, Table A-2. Households by Total Money Income, Race, and Hispanic Origin of Householder: 1967 to 2018; www.census.gov/library/publications/2019/demo/p60-266.html

The Wealthiest Americans Chart:
Survey of Consumer Finances (Federal Reserve), www.federalreserve.gov/econres/scfindex.htm;
Forbes: www.forbes.com/forbes-400

Prison Incarceration Rates Chart:
World Prison Brief; www.prisonstudies.org

Prison Population and Race in the US Chart:
National Prisoner Statistics Program, Federal Justice Statistics Program, National Corrections Reporting Program, Survey of Prison Inmates, December 2016 data; cited at Bureau of Justice Statistics, https://www.bjs.gov
"Mass Incarceration: The Whole Pie 2020", Prison Policy Initiative; www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html
Pew Research Center; www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2019/04/30/shrinking-gap-between-number-of-blacks-and-whites-in-prison/

People Killed by Police in the US Chart:
Killed by Police; https://killedbypolice.net/
The Root; www.theroot.com/here-s-how-many-people-police-killed-in-2019-we-think-1841183889
"Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race–ethnicity, and sex", August 20, 2019; doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821204116

Racial Share of People Killed by Police in the US Chart:
Killed by Police; https://killedbypolice.net/
The Root; www.theroot.com/here-s-how-many-people-police-killed-in-2019-we-think-1841183889

Text:
Killed by Police, https://killedbypolice.net/

Lifetime Risk of Being Killed by Police Use of Force in the US Text:
"Risk of being killed by police use of force in the United States by age, race, ethnicity, and sex", August 20, 2019; doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1821204116
Killed by Police, https://killedbypolice.net/


Tags: wealth, race, inequality, prison incarceration, police, people killed by police, distribution of wealth, billionaires, wealth & inequality

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