Inequality in different countries: dynamics of states and perception by the population over 20 years

Abstract

The article highlights the relationship between the country’s well-being and their people’s perception of inequality in 1999, 2009 and 2019. The country’s well-being was measured using four indicators: GDP per capita, life expectancy, the average number of years of schooling and the Gini index (data taken from the United Nations, the World Bank and the Global Data Laboratory reports). The perception of inequality was measured using six indicators: the importance of coming from a wealthy family and knowing the right people to get ahead, differences in income perception, feeling of conflicts in society, approval of inequality in opportunities, as well as subjective social stratification (based on the III-V waves of the modules Social Inequality of The International Social Survey Programme, ISSP). The groups of the countries based on their well-being and the people’s perception of inequality were determined using multidimensional scaling. With its means, for each of the taken years (1999, 2009 and 2019) two-dimensional spaces in which the countries were located were constructed. A positive correlation between a country’s GDP level and life expectancy was reproduced in all observed periods. In contrast, depth of stratification was not significantly associated with any of the remaining indicators of welfare. Subjective stratification, as well as people’s ideas about how to get ahead, were determined by GDP per capita, but not by objective stratification. This one correlated with feelings of conflict and approval of unequal opportunities. Dimensions in decisions — both for the country’s well-being and for perception— were reproduced at all measurement points. At the same time, the composition of homogeneous groups of countries varied from one time interval to another. The most stable were the groupings of Scandinavian and island countries, whose levels of well-being and perceptions of inequality by the population were similar.