# Economists : Historically what percent of population has owned 99% of wealth? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 5, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688 "2021-01-05T05:41:34Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 5:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688/1 "2021-01-05T05:41:34Z")
I have seen figures floating around like 1% of population owning 99% of wealth. This question is not about whether it is 1% or some other number, but rather how this has varied over history. My guess is that 99% of wealth was probably owned by 0.001% pre - industrial revolution, and the 0.001% has grown exponentially since then. Is this true ? How does the plot of 99% wealth owning population, over history, look like ? ---
**Author:** ![Velocity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/velocity/32/18006_2.png) [@Velocity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Velocity)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 5:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688/2 "2021-01-05T05:54:09Z")
I find that 1% figure extremely doubtful for ancient times, unless it was an extremely broad definition like “the king owns his subjects, and his subjects own the livestock, ergo the king owns the livestock.” Back in ancient times, wealth was often measured in flock size, vineyards, etc. rather than monetary coinage, so it would have been highly unlikely a king or noble class could own 99% of wealth; that had to have been under the administration of the farmers/serfs themselves. ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688/3 "2021-01-05T06:04:18Z")
A better statistical measure for overall inequality of wealth or income is the Gini Coefficient, that’s going to be more productive in searching for historical estimates. > **[Gini coefficient](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gini_coefficient)** > > In economics, the Gini coefficient (/ˈdʒiːni/ JEE-nee), also known as the Gini index or Gini ratio, is a measure of statistical dispersion intended to represent the income inequality, the wealth inequality, or the consumption inequality within a nation or a social group. It was developed by Italian statistician and sociologist Corrado Gini. > The Gini coefficient measures the inequality among the values of a frequency distribution, such as levels of income. A Gini coefficient of 0 reflects perfe... I found this brief discussion of a book describing estimates for ancient civilizations: > **[The Archaeology of Wealth Inequality](https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/aracheology-wealth-inequality-180968072/)** > > Researchers trace the income gap back more than 11,000 years I guess there must be much more reliable estimates for the last few centuries, but I can’t yet find anything going back before the 1900s. > [@am77494](#): > > My guess is that 99% of wealth was probably owned by 0.001% pre - industrial revolution, and the 0.001% has grown exponentially since then. I’m no expert, but I don’t think this is true. It appears that the most equitable societies were probably our hunter gatherer ancestors, and that broadly speaking increasing wealth inequality has been associated with advancing technology. ---
**Author:** ![am77494](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d2c977/32.png) [@am77494](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/am77494)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688/4 "2021-01-05T06:06:20Z")
Thanks for the response and the links. Would you say the “inequality curve” as defined in the OP is linear or exponential or some other form ? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2021, 6:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/economists-historically-what-percent-of-population-has-owned-99-of-wealth/929688/5 "2021-01-05T06:08:42Z")
Well, over the last 100 years it’s U-shaped. See figure 6 here: > **[A Guide to Statistics on Historical Trends in Income Inequality | Center on...](https://www.cbpp.org/research/poverty-and-inequality/a-guide-to-statistics-on-historical-trends-in-income-inequality)** > > The years from the end of World War II into the 1970s were ones of substantial economic growth and broadly shared prosperity.  Beginning in the 1970s, economic growth slowed and the income gap widened.