The recently published 2026 World Inequality Report documents a worsening global situation, with Thailand singled out as one of the countries where ‘The top 1% takes a remarkably large share of wealth.

The report notes that inequality in Thailand ‘remains high and has increased over the past decade’. In terms of income, ‘10% of earners capture 52% of total income, 47 times the total income of the bottom 50% who receive only 11%. This income gap has widened from 42 in 2014, indicating a long-term trend in the direction of growing inequality.

The situation regarding wealth is even worse. The richest 10% of Thais hold almost two-thirds (65%) of total wealth, with almost half that being owned by the top 1%.

This is the 3^rd report by the World Inequality Lab (earlier editions came out in 2018 and 2022) and is based on the work of over 200 economists from around the world, including Nobel Prize laureates. It finds that ‘inequality remains extreme and persistent.’ The wealthiest 0.001%, numbering fewer than 60,000 multi-millionaires, control three times more wealth than half of humanity combined. And the millionaire’s share is growing.

The report shows that inequality intersects with other dimensions. The richest 1% in the world are responsible for double the carbon emissions of the bottom 90%. When domestic and care work is included, women work an average of 53 hours a week, compared with 43 for men, yet earn only 61% of men’s hourly wages. This discrepancy does not include unpaid work – if unpaid work is included, women’s hourly wage falls to 32% of men’s.

Economic inequality is not just a question of fairness. Over 15 years ago, The Spirit Level by epidemiologists Wilkinson and Pickett correlated economic inequality with poor outcomes in a range of dimensions, from poor physical and mental health and educational achievement, to high rates of drug abuse, domestic violence and teenage pregnancies.

Although the economics profession has until recently shown little interest in inequality, public interest has grown as seen through the popularity of best-sellers such as Capital in the Twenty-First Century and Ideology and Capital by Picketty, who contributed to the report.

The report also demonstrates how some countries have been successful in reducing economic inequality through policies such as progressive taxation and redistributive transfers such as pensions, unemployment benefits and targeted support to vulnerable groups. It further notes that the ultra-wealthy have not been slow to transform their economic power into political power in order to counter such policies.