During a 2018 survey, approximately 40.5 percent of respondents in Chile stated that they belonged to middle class. Meanwhile, 38.2 percent of the people surveyed said they would describe themselves as lower middle class and 17.1 percent claimed to be part of the low class.

As of 2022, the bottom 50 percent in Chile, that is, the population whose income lied below the median, earned on average 4,800 U.S. dollars at purchasing power parity (PPP) before income taxes. This is nearly 43 times less than the average income of the top ten percent, that stood at 215,000 USD that year. In relation to percentage distribution of national wealth in Chile, the top ten percent accounted for over 80 percent of the overall national wealth.

From the total national wealth in Chile in 2022, 80.6 percent belonged to the top ten percent group. Almost half of Chile's wealth, 49.8 percent, was held by the top one percent. On the other hand, the bottom 50 percent had a negative wealth, a total of -0.6 percent. That year, the average personal wealth of the top one percent was valued at over three million U.S. dollars.

Abstract

Dataset used in World Bank Policy Research Working Paper #2876, published in World Bank Economic Review, No. 1, 2005, pp. 21-44.

The effects of globalization on income distribution in rich and poor countries are a matter of controversy. While international trade theory in its most abstract formulation implies that increased trade and foreign investment should make income distribution more equal in poor countries and less equal in rich countries, finding these effects has proved elusive. The author presents another attempt to discern the effects of globalization by using data from household budget surveys and looking at the impact of openness and foreign direct investment on relative income shares of low and high deciles. The author finds some evidence that at very low average income levels, it is the rich who benefit from openness. As income levels rise to those of countries such as Chile, Colombia, or Czech Republic, for example, the situation changes, and it is the relative income of the poor and the middle class that rises compared with the rich. It seems that openness makes income distribution worse before making it better-or differently in that the effect of openness on a country's income distribution depends on the country's initial income level.

Kind of data

Aggregate data [agg]