TOP 10 Countries by Income Share of Bottom 40% (Shared Prosperity, 2025)
How much of national income goes to the bottom 40 percent?
The income share of the bottom 40 percent is a central shared prosperity metric: it measures which part of national income accrues to the poorest two quintiles of the population. In a perfectly equal economy, the bottom 40 percent would receive exactly 40 percent of total income. In reality, the global average is much lower, and only a small group of countries manage to push this share above one fifth of total income.
The ranking below highlights ten economies where recent household survey data show comparatively high income shares for the bottom 40 percent. Values are expressed as a percentage of total household income (or consumption), based on harmonised World Bank distributions. Figures are rounded and should be read as indicative, not as an official league table for any specific year or survey wave.
Table 1. Income share of the bottom 40 percent, Top 10 countries (approx., 2025)
| Rank | Country | Income share of bottom 40 % (% of total income, ~2025) |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Slovenia | 25.4 |
| 2 | Slovak Republic | 25.0 |
| 3 | Belarus | 24.8 |
| 4 | Czech Republic | 24.3 |
| 5 | Serbia | 23.9 |
| 6 | Kazakhstan | 23.6 |
| 7 | Azerbaijan | 23.4 |
| 8 | Ukraine | 23.1 |
| 9 | India | 22.8 |
| 10 | Finland | 22.5 |
Note: Values are stylised and rounded, based on World Bank income distribution data for the most recent survey years available around 2020–2023. The purpose is to illustrate relative positions among high-performing economies rather than to provide an official ranking.
Figure 1. Income share of the bottom 40 % in the Top 10 economies
The bar chart compares the share of total income accruing to the bottom 40 percent of the population in each of the Top 10 countries. Values are approximate and harmonised across different survey years for analytical comparability.
Shared prosperity premium: are the bottom 40 percent growing faster?
The income share of the bottom 40 percent is a static snapshot of distribution. Shared prosperity adds a dynamic dimension: it tracks how quickly the incomes of the bottom 40 percent grow over time, compared with the average for the whole population. The shared prosperity premium is defined as the difference between the growth rate of income (or consumption) of the bottom 40 percent and that of the overall population.
A positive shared prosperity premium means that the poorest two quintiles are seeing their incomes rise faster than the national average, implying a gradual compression of inequality. A negative premium implies that the bottom 40 percent are being left behind, even if average incomes are increasing.
Among the ten countries with relatively high income shares for the bottom 40 percent, most show either neutral or mildly positive shared prosperity premiums in the latest World Bank shared-prosperity spells (typically 2016–2021). However, there are important differences: some economies combine an already generous income share for the bottom 40 percent with further pro-poor growth, while others maintain high shares but have recently seen stagnation or reversals at the bottom.
Table 2. Shared prosperity premium in high bottom-40-share economies (stylised, circa 2016–2021)
| Country | Annual income growth of bottom 40 % (%, real, circa 2016–2021) |
Shared prosperity premium (p.p. vs. national average) |
|---|---|---|
| Slovenia | 2.4 | +0.6 |
| Slovak Republic | 2.1 | +0.4 |
| Belarus | 1.0 | -0.3 |
| Czech Republic | 2.0 | +0.5 |
| Serbia | 1.7 | +0.2 |
| Kazakhstan | 1.5 | -0.1 |
| Azerbaijan | 1.2 | -0.4 |
| Ukraine | -0.5 | -1.0 |
| India | 3.0 | +0.8 |
| Finland | 1.8 | +0.3 |
Note: Values are stylised and rounded, based on typical ranges reported in the World Bank Global Database of Shared Prosperity for spells around 2016–2021. The shared prosperity premium is defined as the difference (in percentage points) between the growth rate of real per capita income (or consumption) of the bottom 40 percent and that of the total population. Positive values indicate pro-poor growth.
Figure 2. Income share of the bottom 40 % vs. Gini index (Top 10 economies)
The scatter plot below relates the income share of the bottom 40 percent to the Gini index, a standard summary measure of income inequality. A higher bottom-40 share corresponds to more income going to poorer households, while a higher Gini index indicates greater overall inequality.
Points toward the lower-right corner represent economies where the bottom 40 percent command a relatively high share of total income and overall inequality (Gini index) is low. Values are approximate and harmonised across survey years; they are intended for comparative illustration, not as official statistics.
What does a high income share for the bottom 40 % actually mean?
A high income share for the bottom 40 percent signals a comparatively inclusive distribution of the gains from growth. When the poorest two quintiles receive around one quarter of total income, rather than closer to one tenth as in highly unequal economies, three things usually follow: poverty is lower at any given average income level, vulnerability to shocks is reduced, and the political economy of redistribution becomes less polarised.
At the same time, the Top 10 countries in this ranking still fall well short of the theoretical benchmark of perfect equality. Even in these relatively equal economies, the bottom 40 percent receive only around 23–25 percent of total income. This underlines how difficult it is to compress disparities in labour market outcomes, education, wealth and access to productive assets.
Linking the snapshot to the dynamics of shared prosperity adds an important nuance. In countries where the bottom 40 percent already hold a high share and continue to grow faster than the average, inequality is gradually eroding from a relatively low starting point. In settings with a high income share but a negative shared prosperity premium, the distribution is more fragile: shocks to employment, conflict or macroeconomic instability can quickly reverse earlier gains.
Policy takeaway: using shared prosperity indicators for decision-making
- Look beyond average growth: headline GDP or mean income growth can be misleading if the bottom 40 percent are growing more slowly. A negative shared prosperity premium should trigger a distribution-focused review of the policy mix.
- Combine static and dynamic indicators: a high income share for the bottom 40 percent with a sustained positive premium indicates broad-based, pro-poor growth. Low shares and negative premiums point to a growth model that leaves poorer households behind.
- Target labour markets and social protection: in most countries, the bottom 40 percent rely primarily on labour income. Policies that raise low wages, expand formal employment, and strengthen contributory and non-contributory social protection are central to improving both the share of income and its growth at the bottom.
- Use the Gini–bottom 40 % relationship as a diagnostic: combinations of a high Gini index and a relatively strong income share for the bottom 40 percent may signal a very rich top tail rather than an absence of poverty. Conversely, low Gini values with weak bottom-40 shares often reflect compressed incomes near a low average, not universal prosperity.
- Prioritise data quality and frequency: measuring shared prosperity requires comparable household surveys over time. Investing in survey capacity, integration with administrative records and transparent dissemination is a prerequisite for reliably tracking inclusive growth.
Finally, it is important to emphasise that the figures used in this article are harmonised and rounded to support international comparison. National statistical offices and the World Bank adjust for differences in survey design, welfare concepts (income versus consumption) and price levels. For programme design or fiscal analysis, users should always consult the underlying microdata and country-specific technical notes in addition to summary indicators.
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World Development Indicators – Poverty and inequality theme.
Provides Gini indices and quintile income/consumption shares
derived from harmonised household surveys.
https://datatopics.worldbank.org/world-development-indicators/themes/poverty-and-inequality.html -
World Bank Poverty and Inequality Platform (PIP).
Core repository for distributional statistics, including the
income share held by each quintile and the Gini index by
country and year.
https://pip.worldbank.org/ -
Global Database of Shared Prosperity (GDSP).
Official source for growth in income or consumption of the
bottom 40 percent and the shared prosperity premium,
typically over comparable 4–6 year spells.
https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/poverty/brief/global-database-of-shared-prosperity -
World Bank – Inequality and shared prosperity indicators.
Indicator catalog covering survey mean income of the bottom
40 percent, income shares and related SDG 10.1
indicators.
https://data.worldbank.org/indicator -
Poverty and Shared Prosperity reports.
Flagship analytical series providing global and regional
overviews of trends in poverty, shared prosperity and inequality.
https://openknowledge.worldbank.org/handle/10986/30418
Download assets: Top 10 countries by income share of the bottom 40 %
ZIP-archive with the underlying data tables and chart images used in this StatRanker article. The files can be reused for further analysis, visualisations or teaching materials.
- Table 1 (CSV): Top 10 countries — income share of the bottom 40 % of the population.
- Table 2 (CSV): Shared prosperity premium for the same set of countries.
- Figure 1 (PNG): Bar chart “Income share of the bottom 40 % — Top 10 countries (approx., 2025)”.
- Figure 2 (PNG): Scatter chart “Bottom 40 % income share vs. Gini index — Top 10 countries”.
