The Perception of Social Inequality Around the Globe. Editorial Introduction to the 2019 ISSP Social Inequality Module and Selected Country-Level Findings

Figures & data

Figure 1. Responsibility for reducing differences in income between people with high and low income*.

*In %, n = 40,864, weighted data, data source: ISSP Research Group 2022.

Table 1. Attitudes toward income differences and their reduction*.

	Income differences are too large	Gov’t resp. to reduce income difference	Gov’t resp. to provide a living standard for unemployed	Private companies resp. to reduce the pay gap
Australia	3.92	3.42	3.59	3.60
Austria	4.33	4.13	3.63	3.51
Bulgaria	4.56	4.35	4.08	3.86
Chile	4.09	3.90	3.74	3.72
Taiwan	4.29	3.58	3.62	3.37
Croatia	4.53	4.40	4.06	3.72
Czech Rep.	4.01	3.73	3.14	3.40
Denmark	3.64	3.43	3.99	3.52
Finland	3.79	3.84	3.91	3.72
France	4.34	3.80	3.55	3.83
Germany	4.38	3.80	3.49	3.56
Iceland	4.16	3.81	4.02	3.81
Israel	4.36	3.95	3.86	3.61
Italy	4.36	4.18	3.97	3.64
Japan	3.97	3.55	3.65	3.32
Lithuania	4.29	4.19	3.64	3.62
New Zealand	3.96	3.34	3.38	3.67
Norway	3.70	3.72	3.98	3.60
Philippines	3.73	3.71	4.10	3.65
Russia	4.57	4.56	4.24	3.87
Slovenia	4.39	4.25	3.54	3.89
South Africa	4.12	3.89	3.97	3.61
Suriname	4.28	4.20	3.95	3.66
Sweden	3.83	3.62	3.83	3.50
Switzerland	4.19	3.59	3.70	3.69
Thailand	4.43	4.20	4.34	3.91
Great Britain	4.10	3.73	3.59	3.77
United States	4.03	3.27	3.28	3.60
Venezuela	3.87	3.75	3.85	3.37
All countries	4.15	3.85	3.78	3.64
Standard dev.	0.27	0.33	0.28	0.16

* Mean values of five response categories (1 = strongly disagree to 5 = strongly agree), n = 43,228 – 44,056, weighted data, data source: ISSP Research Group 2022.

Table 2. Attitudes toward political action, tax policies, health care, and education*.

	Politicians don’t care about income reduction^1	Government successful in income reduction^2	High-income groups should pay more taxes^3	Level of current taxes for high income^4	Just that high income better healthcare^5	Just that high income better education^5
Australia	3.94	2.21	3.87	2.85	2.65	2.55
Austria	3.82	2.33	4.05	2.53	2.03	2.10
Bulgaria	4.50	1.56	4.19	2.79	2.20	2.23
Chile	3.91	2.62	3.86	2.65	2.46	2.44
Taiwan	3.88	2.08	4.06	2.38	2.98	3.54
Croatia	4.43	1.68	3.97	2.35	1.79	1.80
Czech Republic	3.96	2.48	3.63	2.61	2.44	2.41
Denmark	3.37	2.40	3.70	2.98	2.49	2.21
Finland	3.75	2.27	4.02	2.70	2.55	2.19
France	4.16	2.06	4.09	2.63	1.82	1.83
Germany	3.87	2.26	4.09	2.69	2.02	1.92
Iceland	3.66	2.30	3.91	2.61	1.88	1.82
Israel	4.17	1.73	3.81	3.23	2.31	2.27
Italy	4.21	1.86	4.00	3.93	2.26	2.13
Japan	3.96	1.96	4.24	2.54	2.93	2.89
Lithuania	4.04	1.87	3.87	2.39	2.70	2.70
New Zealand	3.50	2.61	3.83	2.86	2.84	2.77
Norway	3.46	2.29	3.94	2.55	2.23	2.09
Philippines	3.61	3.00	4.01	3.50	3.51	3.57
Russia	4.30	1.77	4.42	2.09	2.39	2.31
Slovenia	4.09	2.15	4.00	2.42	1.77	1.74
South Africa	3.90	2.67	3.68	3.66	2.92	2.93
Suriname	4.03	2.27	3.95	3.07	3.11	3.26
Sweden	3.75	2.08	3.86	2.70	2.02	1.96
Switzerland	3.89	2.38	4.13	2.44	2.33	2.13
Thailand	4.01	2.10	4.05	2.92	2.81	2.77
Great Britain	3.92	2.11	3.94	2.87	3.04	3.03
United States	3.96	2.11	3.96	2.50	2.38	2.42
Venezuela	3.96	2.13	3.79	2.92	2.49	2.78
All countries	3.93	2.18	3.96	2.77	2.46	2.44
Standard deviation	0.26	0.32	0.17	0.40	0.44	0.51

* Mean values of five response categories: ¹ (1 = strongly disagree; 5 = strongly agree); ² (1 = Very unsuccessful, 5 = Very successful); ³ (1 = Much smaller share; 5 = Much larger share); ⁴ (1 = … much too small; 5 = … much too high); ⁵ (1 = Very unjust, definitely wrong 5 = Very just, definitely right), n = 40,807 – 43,728, weighted data, data source: ISSP Research Group 2022.

Table 3. Attitudes toward social interaction and income situation*.

	Contacts with poor^1	Contacts with rich^1	Difficulty to make ends meet – total income^2	Difficulty to make ends meet – 12 months^2	Frequency of meals skipped^1
Australia	4.73	4.53	2.78	2.85	1.34
Austria	4.52	3.65	2.44	2.49	1.1
Bulgaria	5.48	3.37	3.50	3.53	1.28
Chile	5.08	4.44	3.41	3.30	1.48
Taiwan	4.62	5.14	2.89	2.83	1.16
Croatia	5.26	4.65	2.95	2.92	1.24
Czech Republic	4.61	4.51	2.78	2.81	1.3
Denmark	4.38	4.32	2.22	2.22	1.21
Finland	4.82	4.51	2.39	2.44	1.25
France	4.57	3.46	2.72	2.83	1.3
Germany	4.7	4.00	2.52	2.65	1.17
Iceland	4.73	4.81	2.25	2.38	1.14
Israel	4.48	3.86	3.18	3.26	1.37
Italy	4.90	4.43	3.25	3.28	1.11
Japan	3.01	3.87	3.45	3.62	1.22
Lithuania	5.12	4.73	3.19	3.31	1.29
New Zealand	5.02	4.86	2.60	2.70	1.4
Norway	4.51	4.62	2.32	2.34	1.26
Philippines	5.83	3.56	3.74	3.37	1.34
Russia	4.57	3.36	3.62	3.63	1.42
Slovenia	4.47	4.43	2.80	2.83	1.09
South Africa	5.15	4.29	3.45	3.25	2.04
Suriname	5.14	4.43	3.82	3.86	1.49
Sweden	5.17	4.77	2.24	2.27	1.17
Switzerland	4.95	4.85	2.69	2.72	1.23
Thailand	5.49	5.26	2.92	2.96	1.26
Great Britain	4.91	4.38	2.75	2.81	1.39
United States	4.63	4.03	2.81	2.83	1.48
Venezuela	5.94	3.05	3.81	3.62	2.64
All countries	4.85	4.28	2.95	2.96	1.35
Standard deviation	0.54	0.56	0.49	0.45	0.31

* Mean values of seven response categories¹ (1 = never; 7 = Every day) and five response categories² (1 = Very easy; 5 = Very difficult), n = 41,048 – 44,104, weighted data, data source: ISSP Research Group 2022.

Figure 2. Social trust*.

* In %. n = 43,639, weighted data, data source: ISSP Research Group 2022.

ISSP Research Group 2022. International Social Survey Programme: Social Inequality V – ISSP 2019. GESIS. Köln. ZA7600 Datenfile Version 3.0.0. doi: 10.4232/1.14009.

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