Employment and Social Developments in Europe (ESDE) 2023

4. Social Situation, Poverty, and Income Developments

4.2. Income inequality

In a challenging context, income inequality in the EU has remained broadly constant. Eurostat’s flash estimates of the income quintile share ratio for the top and bottom quintiles (S80/S20) for income year 2022 show stability at EU level compared to 2021. ⁽⁷³⁾ As a measure of inequality of income distribution, the ratio of the total income received by the 20% of the population with the highest income (top quintile) to the total income of the 20% of the population with the lowest income (bottom quintile) decreased slightly, to 4.74 in 2022 (2021 incomes), compared to 4.99 in 2021 (2020 incomes) and 4.89 in 2020 (2019 incomes). ⁽⁷⁴⁾ Similarly, the ratio of total income received by the top quintile (20%) to total income of the 50% of the population (S80/S50) was 2.14 in 2022 (2021 incomes), down from 2.17 in 2021 (2020 incomes). ⁽⁷⁵⁾ The slight downward trend in 2022 (2021 incomes) and broad stability of income inequality during the COVID-19 outbreak also reflects the large-scale support measures put in place by Member States, with EU support, which mitigated negative effects. ⁽⁷⁶⁾ In view of more recent developments, including the energy crisis and related inflationary pressures, it is increasingly important to complement measures of income inequality with measures that better capture the impact of inflationary pressures on households (see section 4.1.). ⁽⁷⁷⁾