A Big-Picture Look at Inequality

Inequality is “big in the wonkosphere” these days, Brookings’ Richard Reeves notes, and our recently updated “Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality” provides important context on this issue.  The guide:

• describes common sources of income data and discusses their relative strengths and limitations in understanding income and inequality trends;
• highlights the trends that those key data sources show; and
• gives additional information on wealth (which complements the income data as a measure of how the most well-off Americans are doing) and poverty (which measures how the least well-off Americans are doing).

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