Wealth Disparity in Hong Kong



The beautiful city of Hong Kong, its wealth disparity hiding behind
the facade of glittering skylines and expensive cars.



Hong Kong is internationally renown for its skyscrapers, expensive cars and pricey real estate, which gives people all over the world an impression that Hong Kong is a rich city. Indeed it is, but most of the wealth is concentrated/spread through a small part of the population. Put simply, a small number of people at the top of the social ladder hold most of the wealth, and a large number of people towards the bottom of the social ladder have little wealth. This in turn creates a huge wealth disparity, or the gap between the rich and the poor. Hong Kong actually ranked No. 1 amongst the world's most developed economies for income inequality.

The Gini coefficient is widely used measure of income disparity. In 1996, the figure stood at 0.518 on a scale where 0 represents perfect equality and 1 complete inequality.Hong Kong's Gini coefficient has increased to 0.533 in 2006 from 0.525 in 2001, the last available figure. It showed that Hong Kong's working poor were getting poorer or had not broadly benefited from the city's overall economic recovery.

Check out more information about the wealth disparity in Hong Kong here:
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSHKG22425220070618