Resource information
This paper uses a set of national
household surveys to study the regional Sub-Saharan Africa
distribution of consumption expenditure among individuals
during 1993 to 2008. The analysis puts the disparities in
living standards that exist among persons in Africa into
context with the disparities that exist within and between
African countries. Regional interpersonal inequality has
increased (from a Gini index of 52 percent in 1993 to 56
percent in 2008), driven by increasing disparities in living
standards across countries, while there has been no
systematic increase in within-country inequality. For the
African distribution as a whole, growth of consumption
expenditure (from household surveys) has been low (around 1
percent per year). This growth has been uneven and as a
result the richest 5 percent of Africans received around 40
percent of the total gains, while the bottom third stagnated.
