Richer countries are more concerned about inequality

Further to my last couple of posts, here I examine the relationship between the percentage who believe inequality is the top global threat and a country's position in the global distribution of GDP per capita. The global distribution of GDP per capita is displayed below; data are for 2012, taken from the World Bank (figures were not available for Palestine or Argentina). Note that the chart displays the distribution of states (loosely defined), rather than countries. For example, the World Bank reports separate values for Hong Kong, Macau and China. The median state is Tunisia, with a GDP per capita of $10,800. Western Europe encompasses the 78th (Portugal) to 99th (Luxembourg) percentiles.

The second chart (below) plots the percentage who believe inequality is the top global threat against percentile in the global distribution of GDP per capita. Interestingly, the correlation is moderate and positive, namely r = .48 (p = 0.001, n = 42). Citizens living in richer countries are more likely to believe that inequality is the top global threat. Since about 2/3rds of global income inequality is between countries, this suggests that rich countries might be able to assuage their citizens' concerns by taking measures to reduce their own incomes. They could increase foreign aid to poor countries, or simply destroy productive assets. 

One possible explanation for why citizens of poorer countries are apparently less likely to believe inequality is the top global threat is that they have access to less information, or to information of lower quality, than their counterparts living in richer countries. In other words, if they had better information, perhaps they would be less concerned about AIDS, and more concerned about inequality.