Top 1% income share above the post-WWII trough across major economies
Statement
Pre-tax top 1% income shares in major economies — the US most acutely, the UK and France more moderately — have risen back above the post-WWII trough and approach pre-Depression levels, reversing the mid-century compression.
Data
- Top 1% share of pre-tax national income (US)0.205 shareWorld Inequality Database — US
- Top 1% share of pre-tax national income (France)0.11 shareWorld Inequality Database — France
Provenance
Sources
- World Inequality Database — country dashboardshttps://wid.world/Pre-tax top 1% income share has reverted toward early-20th-century levels in the US, UK, and France since 1980, after a postwar trough.
- Saez & Zucman — wealth concentration datahttps://eml.berkeley.edu/~saez/US top-1% wealth share has roughly doubled since 1980 by their distributional national accounts methodology.
Causal links
Visible concentration of top incomes fuels resentment-based political identities that map onto partisan lines, contributing to affective polarization.
When the after-tax return on capital exceeds aggregate growth, capital income compounds faster than the wage bill, raising top income shares mechanically.
Supply-constrained housing markets transfer wealth to existing owners and elevate the imputed-rent component of top incomes, raising the top share.
Tax-policy capture by concentrated wealth lowers effective rates on capital and inheritance, accelerating top-share growth beyond the r > g baseline.