Long-run evolution of income inequality in the Nordic countries

Figures & data

Table 1. Summary of basic definitions.

	Unit of analysis	Population	Measure of income	Control total of income	Income of non-taxpayers
Denmark	Family (1870–1969) Individual (1970–2010)	All families (1870–1969) All individuals aged 15+ (1970–2010)	Assessed taxable income	Total tax income plus estimates of income for non-taxpayers	Estimated the income for non-taxpayers
Finland	Household (1865–1900) Family (1920–1989)	Households, but also corporations 1865 and 1880 (1865–1900) All families (1920–1989)	Assessed taxable income	Total tax income plus estimates of income for non-taxpayers	Estimated the income for non-taxpayers in relation (40, 60 or 80%) to the tax threshold
Norway	Family (1875–2018)	All families (1875–2018)	Assessed taxable income	72 per cent of the National Accounts’ total household income	Estimated the income for non-taxpayers based on data for social assistance
Sweden	Family (1903–1950) Individual (1951–2010)	All families (1903–1950) All individuals aged 15+ (1951–2010)	Assessed taxable income	89 per cent of the National Accounts’ total household income (1903–1942) Total tax income (1943–2010)	Implicit estimates of the income for non-taxpayers

Figure 1. Income share of the top 1 per cent in the Nordic countries, 1865–2017.

Note: Data for Denmark from Atkinson and Søgaard (2016), Finland from Roikonen (2022), Norway from Aaberge and Atkinson (2010) and Aaberge et al. (2020), Sweden from Roine and Waldenström (2010, tab 7.A.2).

Figure 2. Estimates of the Gini coefficient in the Nordic countries, 1865–2018.

Note that the y-axis is cropped at 0,30. Source for Denmark is Atkinson and Søgaard (2016), mean of the upper bound and the lower bound series. Source for Finland is Roikonen (2022), 60 per cent assumption for non-filers. Roikonen’s data cover the 1866–2004 period; for 2005–2019 we have extrapolated the Gini from the 2004 level using the changes in the OSF Gini estimates also included in Roikonen’s dataset. Source for Norway is Aaberge et al. (2020), displayed as mean of upper and lower bounds. Source for Sweden is SCB, ‘Indikatorer inkomstfördelning, disponibel inkomst och faktorinkomst per konsumtionsenhet, familjeenheter, 1975–2013 , 2020-års priser’.

Table 2. Summary of the evolution of overall income inequality.

	Denmark	Finland	Norway	Sweden
Late 1800s to 1914	Declining (but uncertain level in 1870)	Rising	Stable	No data
First World War	Rising	No data	Sharp rise	Rising top income shares
The 1920s	Steep fall 1918–20, then quite stable	Falling	Steep fall 1917–19, then stable.	Only top income data 1920 and 1930; stable.
The 1930s and the Depression	Stable	Declining 1930–35, then rising	Weakly rising	Declining top income shares
Second World War and the postwar period	Declining during the war and late 1940s, stable in the 1950s. Break in the series in 1970, which weakens comparability	Fluctuations without a trend until the early 1970s when it starts to decline	Declining during the war, which continued until early 1950s, stability in the rest of 1950s, during the 1960s and weakly declining during the 1970s	Stable top income shares during the War; declining 1946–55, then stable 1955–70. Declining overall inequality during the 1970s
The post-1980 period	Declining from 1980 to the early 1990s, then weakly rising	Rising since the mid-1980s	Stability in the 1980s, rising since the early 1990s.	Rising overall inequality since the early 1980s

Note: Recall that the encompassing Gini measure for Sweden is only available from the 1970s, so the discussion for Sweden’s pre-1970 evolution is solely based on results for top income shares.

Atkinson, A. B., & Søgaard, J. E. (2016). The long-run history of income inequality in Denmark. The Scandinavian Journal of Economics, 118(2), 264–291. https://doi.org/10.1111/sjoe.12143

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Roikonen, P. (2022). Income inequality in Finland, 1865–2019. Scandinavian Economic History Review, 70(3), 234–251.

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Aaberge, R., & Atkinson, A. B. (2010). Top incomes in Norway. In A. B. Atkinson & T. Piketty (Eds.), Top incomes in a global perspective (pp. 448–481). Oxford University Press.

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Aaberge, R., Atkinson, A. B., & Modalsli, J. (2020). Estimating long-run income inequality from mixed tabular data: Empirical evidence from Norway 1875–2017. Journal of Public Economics, 187, 104196.

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Roine, J., & Waldenström, D. (2010). Top incomes in Sweden over the twentieth century. In A. B. Atkinson & T. Piketty (Eds.), Top incomes in global perspective (pp. 299–370). Oxford University Press.

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