DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.16410778
title: Global subnational Gini coefficient (income inequality) and gross national income (GNI) per capita PPP datasets for 1990-2023

description: This dataset provides a gridded subnational datasets for



Income inequality (Gini coefficient) at admin 1 level

Gross national income (GNI) per capita PPP at admin 1 level


The datasets are based on reported subnational admin data and spans three decades from 1990 to 2023 

The datasets are presented in details in the following publication. Please cite this paper when using data. 

Chrisendo D, Niva V, Hoffman R, Sayyar SM, Rocha J, Sandström V, Solt F, Kummu M. 2025. Rising income inequality across half of global population and socioecological implications. Nature Sustainability. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-025-01689-4

Code is available at following repositories:



Gini coefficient data creation: https://github.com/mattikummu/subnatGini 

GNI per capita data creation: https://github.com/mattikummu/subnatGNI 

analyses for the article: https://github.com/mattikummu/gini_gni_analyses 


The following data is given (formats in brackets)

Gini coefficient:

Please note, two distinct datasets for Gini cofficient are given. One based on SWIID national dataset, and another for WID national dataset. These are separated in file names as follows:  _disp_ for SWIID (disposable income); _WID_ for WID.  



Income inequality (Gini coefficient) at admin 0 level (national) (GeoTIFF, gpkg, csv)

Income inequality (Gini coefficient) at admin 1 level (subnational) (GeoTIFF, gpkg, csv)

Slope for Gini coefficient at admin 1 level (GeoTIFF; slope is given also in gpk and csv files)

Uncertainty (standard deviation for each year and admin area; uncertainty for slope) for Gini (based on SWIID) at admin 1 level (gpkg)

Input data for the script that was used to generate the Gini coefficient (input_data_gini.zip)


Gross national income (GNI) pear capita  PPP (in 2021 USD):



Gross national income (GNI) per capita PPP at admin 0 level (national) (GeoTIFF, gpkg, csv)

Gross national income (GNI) per capita PPP at admin 1 level (subnational) (GeoTIFF, gpkg, csv)

Slope for GNI per capita (log10) at admin 1 level (GeoTIFF; slope is given also in gpk and csv files)

Input data for the script that was used to generate the GNI per capita PPP (input_data_GNI.zip)


Files are named as followsFormat: raster data (GeoTIFF) starts with rast_*, polygon data (gpkg) with polyg_*, and tabulated with tabulated_*. Admin levels: adm0 for admin 0 level, adm1 for admin 1 levelProduct type: 



_gini_disp_  for gini coefficient based on SWIID national dataset (disposable income)

_gini_WID_  for gini coefficient based on WID national dataset

_uncertainty_slope_gini_disp_ for slope uncertainty of SWIID based Gini

_uncertainty_SD_gini_disp_ for standard deviation of SWIID based Gini

_gni_perCapita_ for GNI per capita PPP


 

Metadata 

Grids 

Resolution: 5 arc-min (0.083333333 degrees) 

Spatial extent: Lon: -180, 180; -90, 90 (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax) 

Coordinate ref system: EPSG:4326 - WGS 84 

Format: Multiband geotiff; one band for each year over 1990-2021

Unit: no unit for Gini coefficient and PPP USD in 2017 international dollars for GNI per capita

 

Geospatial polygon (gpkg) files: 

Spatial extent: -180, 180; -90, 83.67 (xmin, xmax, ymin, ymax) 

Temporal extent: annual over 1990-2021

Coordinate ref system: EPSG:4326 - WGS 84 

Format: gkpk 

Unit:  no unit for Gini coefficient and PPP USD in 2017 international dollars for GNI per capita

 

Version 3 changes (24.07.2025)



both datasets updated to cover 1990-2023 (previously 1990-2021)

extrapolation method updated

Gini data now produced also using WID national data as a base (previously only one based on SWIID was provided)

uncertainty analysis done for Gini (SWIID)