Credit: Public domain.
An OECD report released September 20 ranked South Korea near the bottom of the 29 OECD member countries on equality and wealth distribution. South Korea’s Gini coefficient, a measure of economic inequality within a population, was 0.392 for 2023 before taxes and redistribution, landing the country 22nd out of 29 OECD member countries.
South Korea fared even worse when it came to redistributing wealth via taxes and transfers. In 2023, taxes and transfers cut the country’s Gini coefficient by 17.6%, just over half the OECD average of 34.4% reduction. Korea has been gradually addressing wealth inequality through more aggressive redistribution, but efforts peaked in 2020, when taxes and redistribution cut the Gini coefficient by 19.0%.
