New Delhi:According to a recent study, even though 94% of the world's population has seen an increase in national income since 1990, about half of all individuals lived in areas where income disparity had grown in 2023.
According to the journal "Nature Sustainability," about one-fourth of people lived in areas where both income and inequality had dramatically increased since 1990, while about one-third of people lived in areas where inequality had decreased.
According to researchers, including those from Finland's Aalto University, the study offers significant information to assess aim 10 of the Sustainable Development Goals, which is to "reduce inequalities within and among countries," as well as insights into patterns in income disparity.

The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, which was approved by UN members in 2015, is a road map for attaining economic success, planet health, and human advancement.
Data on income disparity spanning 30 years from 151 countries was examined.
"While gross national income has increased for most people globally , inequality has also increased for around 46-59 per cent of the global population, while it has decreased for 31-36 per cent," the researchers stated.
According to lead author and Aalto University professor Matti Kummu, "This research gives us much more detail than the existing datasets, allowing us to zoom in on specific regions within countries."

"This is significant because in many countries national data would tell us that inequality has not changed much over the past decades, while subnational data tells a very different story," Kummu explained.
Along with China and Brazil, India was one of the case studies examined in the study.
"Northern India has experienced stagnant inequality, whereas southern states have made more inclusive progress," stated the authors.
They claimed that persistent efforts in public health, education, infrastructure, and economic growth that benefited the local populace more broadly were responsible for the greater success in the country's southern area, "a stronghold of the Indian left."

The variations "highlight the importance of moving beyond national averages to uncover the underlying dynamics of inequality and identify the drivers of inclusive growth," the researchers said.
Regional cash transfer programs in Brazil that provide financial assistance to low-income families in exchange for their children attending school and receiving vaccinations have been linked to a possible decrease in inequality.
A collective inability to achieve the UN's SDG by 2030 is another finding of the study.
"Unfortunately, not only are we quite far from that goal, but the trend for rising inequality is actually stronger than we thought," Kummu stated.