Insights

How unequally is income distributed across Spanish regions? Has it improved over time? The following figures show the Gini index by Autonomous Community, a standard measure of income inequality, with higher values indicating greater dispersion. The map captures the regional picture in 2023, while the dot plot tracks the change between 2016 and 2023. 

The maps below show three complementary percentile ratios of equivalent disposable income by Autonomous Community for 2023, each capturing a different segment of the distribution. The P90/P10 ratio compares the top and bottom 10% of earners, offering an overall picture of inequality between the extremes. The P50/P10 and P90/P50 ratios decompose this gap by focusing on the upper and lower halves of the distribution, respectively. In all three cases, higher values and redder colours indicate greater income dispersion.

The map and chart below show the at-risk-of-poverty rate by Autonomous Community for 2023, as well as its evolution since 2016, using a national poverty threshold set at 60% of the national median equivalent disposable income. Given that this threshold is common across all regions, higher values and redder colours indicate a greater share of the low-income population than among other residents in the country.

The figures below present the at-risk-of-poverty rate by Autonomous Community using a regional poverty threshold defined as 60% of each region's own median equivalent disposable income. Unlike the national threshold used above, this approach adjusts the benchmark to local living standards, so a household is classified as poor relative to its own region rather than in Spain as a whole. As a result, regional disparities tend to appear more compressed, but the measure offers a more nuanced picture of relative deprivation within each territory.

We can decompose the redistributive effects of the Spanish tax-benefit system to identify the contribution of different policies on inequality by analyzing changes in inequality levels from market income to disposable income. We consider the role of personal income tax, means-tested and non-mean-tested benefits and their capacity to reduce inequality in percentage reduction of the Gini index.

Tax-benefit systems do not redistribute income uniformly across Spanish regions. The chart below decomposes the redistributive capacity of the tax-benefit system by Autonomous Community. Formally, it is defined as the difference between the Gini index of market income and the Gini index of disposable income after taxes and transfers: the larger the gap, the more redistributive the fiscal system. Each bar breaks down this total effect into four components (pensions, other social benefits, social contributions, and taxes), allowing a comparison of both the overall redistributive capacity of each region and the relative weight of each instrument within it.

Below you can find the evolution of inequality and poverty in Spain in the last 5 decades using different microdata sources. Most of them are comparable, while others not so much. As you can see, between 1990 and 2004 the information on incomes in Spain is sparse and sources of information are not so reliable as before or after.