Nations facing the mirror of inequality: What the data says and why it matters.

February 2026 by Ana Carrisso

"Where there is a lot of property ownership, there is a lot of inequality." For every very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor men, and the wealth of a few implies the poverty of many. This sentence was written by Adam Smith in his work. "The Wealth of Nations," whose publication will celebrate its 250th anniversary in 2026. However, it's a phrase that could be uttered by any politician or influencer today, and one that we could easily find in an Instagram reel, proof that the debate about inequality remains as alive today as it was in the 18th century, despite all the changes the structure of the economy has undergone since then.

How has inequality evolved in the EU?

In September 2025, the study "Wealth Inequality" was published. "Analysis of socioeconomic disparities in the EU," from the European Foundation for the Improvement of Living and Working Conditions (Eurofound), which is the EU's tripartite agency that provides expertise to help develop better social, employment, and labor policies. Authored by researcher Carlos Vacas-Soriano, the study delves into how inequality levels have increased among EU Member States between 2010 and 2021, based on data from the European Central Bank (ECB).

It presents some revealing data: For example, according to the Gini index (where the value closest to 0 denotes perfect equality and the closest to 100, perfect inequality), it reveals a very unequal distribution of wealth in Europe, with Germany being the country with the greatest inequality, followed by Spain and Ireland. However, the countries where inequality decreased the most during the period studied were Latvia, Ireland, Austria, and Poland. In the case of Portugal, inequality has only decreased slightly, without showing a clear trend over the decade.

In the previous article, we detailed how the inequality index is a useful tool for measuring the degree of economic prosperity of a country's inhabitants. Now, numbers alone are not enough; It is important to know how to interpret them in order to determine what implications purely statistical data have on people's real lives.

When inequality ceases to be a statistic and begins to shape real life.

Different income levels directly impact individuals' well-being, not only by limiting the goods and services they can access, but also, and importantly, by conditioning the present and future decisions they can make about their own finances. Reduced access to opportunities not only perpetuates inequality, but can also be interpreted as an inefficient allocation of a nation's human resources and, ultimately, can negatively affect economic growth. In other words, the more limited the decisions are, the more difficult it will be for the social elevator to function and, consequently, the less the capacity for progress of society as a whole.

We can see a practical example of this in 2026 by analyzing the structure of the American economy: The impact of inflation and the application of tariffs did not affect all economic sectors equally, nor, consequently, all segments of the population. In fact, we are currently facing K-shaped growth. The segment of the population with higher income levels and the technology-related sectors continue to demonstrate investment and consumption capacity, while lower-income groups and more traditional sectors (such as construction, for example) are experiencing economic difficulties.

We live in times when the value of meritocracy has been called into question. This deterministic way of thinking, according to which individuals' life and professional trajectories are conditioned by their income level, is also contributing to social unease and distrust in public institutions. Over the past three years, we have observed how growing inequality can cause deep fractures in society, with voters being punished at the ballot box in countries around the world, from the US to India, passing through Canada, the UK, Argentina or Japan, all with one element in common: The loss of purchasing power. Therefore, it is necessary to closely monitor the evolution of inequality levels, both in developing societies and in Western liberal democracies.