income is actually distributed a bit more fairly in Iran than in the United States.
Iran and the United States are both in the bottom third, but far from the bottom. Of the 140 countries in the tabulation, Namibia ranks first for inequality and Sweden ranks best. The United States ranks 40th from the bottom and Iran 42nd.
But neither has anything to brag about. The United States has the worst income distribution of any developed country and Iran has the second worst distribution among Muslim majority countries, despite the regime’s boasting about fairness. Malaysia, surprisingly, has the worst distribution of income among Muslim majority states.
The worst seven countries are all in Africa. The next six are all in Latin America. Then come the two Asian states with the least fair distribution of income, both surprises—Thailand and Hong Kong.
The European state with the worst distribution of income is Bulgaria, which ranks 39th from the bottom. It is just marginally worse than the 40th ranked United States.
The fairness of income distribution is measured by a complex statistical device called the Gini index. The World Factbook, an online publication of the CIA, has tabulated the Gini indexes for 140 countries. Some of the national figures are more than a decade old, though most come from the last few years.
The World Factbook carries many such tabulations of statistics comparing countries around the world.
The Gini index list contains some surprises. It is no surprise that all five Scandinavian countries are in the best 20. But so are Kazakhstan, in 132nd place, and Ukraine, in 128th place.
Of Iran’s seven land neighbors, six were listed with substantially fairer income distribution than in Iran. The seventh, Iraq, was not in the tabulation.
The table above gives the Gini scores and rankings for several countries. Note that the higher the ranking and score the less fair the income distribution is.