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Oxfam's inequality report: pandemic increases global inequality

24 January 2021

The world's richest are back at record levels. At the same time, billions of people will live in poverty for at least a decade to come.

Oxfam's new inequality report shows that it could take over a decade for the world to return to pre-pandemic poverty levels. Meanwhile, it took only nine months for the wealth of the world's 1,000 richest people to return to pre-pandemic levels.

Nuvis from Venezuela stands in her kitchen and draws water in a carafe.

Photo: Ivan Ocando / Oxfam

Nuvis is 64 years old. She has been selling coffee and cigarettes in front of the port of Maracaibo -Venezuela- since she was a child. Her son, who is ill with cancer, and her two grandchildren, whose mother died 8 years ago, all depend on her earnings. So far, they have managed to survive on the little she earned, but due to the lack of work and movement due to the COVID-19 emergency, she has not sold enough to be able to eat as before.
"Inequality is increasing more than ever before measured. The huge gap between rich and poor is now proving to be as deadly as the virus."

Johan Pettersson, Secretary General of Oxfam Sweden

The Inequality Virus report shows that COVID-19 appears to be increasing economic inequality in almost every country in the world at the same time. This is the first time this has happened since measurements began over a century ago.

This is what global inequality looks like:

  • Poverty and hunger are increasing in the wake of the pandemic. The pandemic has caused the worst unemployment crisis in over 90 years and over 200 million people are at risk of falling into poverty due to the economic impact of the pandemic.
  • The economic crisis is over for the richest. The world's ten richest people have recovered their finances at record speed and earned half a trillion dollars during the pandemic - enough to pay for COVID-19 vaccines for the entire world population and ensure that no one fell into poverty due to the pandemic.
  • Women are the hardest hit. Globally, women are overrepresented in low-paid, precarious jobs, the ones most affected by the coronavirus crisis. Women also make up around 70% of health and social care workers globally - often underpaid jobs where staff are at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.
  • Inequality costs lives. In Brazil, people of African origin are 40% more likely to die from COVID-19 than whites. In the US, nearly 22 000 black and Hispanic people would still be alive today if they had the same mortality rate as the country's white population. In France, India and Spain, both transmission and mortality rates are higher in poorer areas. In England, COVID-19 mortality rates are twice as high in the poorest areas of the country compared to the richest.
"Extreme inequality is not inevitable, it is a political choice. The coronavirus pandemic has shown the world's urgent need for an economic system that benefits everyone, not just the most privileged."

Johan Pettersson, Secretary General of Oxfam Sweden

Read the full report