What hope for the poorest? Hong Kong wealth gap hits record high
Report finds richest 10 per cent in city earn 44 times that of the poorest
Hong Kong’s wealth gap has widened to a historic high, with the richest household now earning about 44 times what the poorest family scrapes together, despite government efforts to alleviate poverty.
The government’s findings put the city behind New York as the world’s second-most unequal city in terms of income, according to the household income distribution report released on Friday by the Census and Statistics Department.
The government tried to put a positive spin on the situation, claiming that the gulf between the haves and have-nots had actually registered a slight drop, taking into account the effects of taxation and social benefits.
Announcing the report findings, commissioner for census and statistics Leslie Tang Wai-kong pointed out that the Gini coefficient – an index from 0 to 1 that measures the wealth gap – for households rose by 0.002 from 0.537 in 2011 to a record high of 0.539 last year. That was the highest figure since the city began keeping records on income equality 46 years ago.
Watch: Collecting for rent in pricey Hong Kong, one cardboard box at a time