The richest 1% of the UK population owns more than 20 times the wealth of the poorest fifth, according to Oxfam. That made Britain one of the most unequal countries in the developed world and contributed to the vote for Brexit, the charity said.
The richest 1% now has as much wealth as the rest of the world combined, according to Oxfam. It uses data from Credit Suisse from October for the report, which urges leaders meeting in Davos this week to take action on inequality. Oxfam also calculated that the richest 62 people in the world had as much wealth as the poorest half of the global population.
More than half the world’s wealth will be owned by just one percent of the population by next year as global inequality soars, anti-poverty charity Oxfam predicted on Tuesday in an explosive document on the eve of a major meeting of the world’s political and business elite.
People using tax havens have deprived governments worldwide of £100 billion in revenue, enough to end extreme poverty twice over, according to new figures published by Oxfam. The total amount of lost tax revenue is far higher than £100 billion, as the figure only includes tax dodged by individuals, and not companies.
One in eight people worldwide still suffers from chronic hunger, the UN's food agency said on Tuesday, describing the figure as unacceptable and warning that the fight against hunger was slowing down.