appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Alice Li

Hong Kong has become the world’s most unequal society in terms of wealth distribution, a study has found, as the core drivers of income inequality in the city have shifted from wage disparities to capital concentration, reducing social mobility.
The findings of the study, which analysed the evolution of income and wealth inequality in the city between 1981 and 2021, were presented by Yang Li, an advanced researcher at the Germany-based ZEW-Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research, during a seminar hosted by the University of Hong Kong.
Yang said Hong Kong’s wealth disparities were no longer fuelled by differences in wages, but rather by capital asset ownership – which generates investment returns that favour a small segment of the population.
The share of capital in Hong Kong’s total income surged following the Asian financial crisis – from around 35 per cent in 2000 to 55 per cent in 2019. That significantly outpaced other high-income economies, such as the US, Britain and Germany, where the capital share typically hovered between 20 per cent and 30 per cent, Yang said.
“The wealthy become unseen and invest in things that you do not know about, and the amounts are actually much, much larger than labour income,” Yang said.
“And only a small group of people benefit from the rise of capital’s share in income, because you can only invest when you have money.”
Hong Kong has evolved into an economy with a high rate of wealth concentration following decades of accumulation at the top.
By 2018, the richest 0.001 per cent of the population controlled at least 10.3 per cent of the city’s total private wealth, at a conservative estimate. This share outpaced that of the United States, at 4.3 per cent, and Russia, a nation known for oligarchic asset control, which stood at 9.8 per cent.
Consequently, upward social mobility has stalled. The study found that the percentage of children out-earning their parents was deteriorating at a sharper and faster rate than in peer developed economies.




Yang attributed the extreme inequality partly to Hong Kong’s weak wealth redistribution system. The city’s top personal income tax rate is 17 per cent – far below the 30-45 per cent levied in the US, Britain and mainland China. Hong Kong also maintains lower corporate and capital gains taxes compared with other economies, and abolished inheritance tax – a key mechanism for taxing intergenerational wealth – in 2006.
The systemic gap was heavily felt on the ground, an advocacy group said.
“[Hong Kong’s lower-income groups] currently face a mismatch between their hard work and income, job insecurity, steep housing and living costs, making it hard to accumulate wealth,” said Sze Lai-shan, deputy director of non-governmental body the Society for Community Organisation.
She added that the current social safety net was inadequate to lift residents out of poverty and called for a more progressive tax system.
“Improvements must be made in wages, working family allowance, education subsidies, healthcare, housing and social welfare, with the ultimate goal of empowering citizens to escape poverty,” Sze said.
Yang also noted that despite Hong Kong being a financial centre with a relatively high GDP per capita – at US$56,893 in 2025 – it had a lower minimum wage and extremely cramped living space per capita compared with developed economies in the West.
Meanwhile, the birth rate in Hong Kong dropped to a record low in 2025. The city has also fallen to its lowest-ever position in the World Happiness Report, sliding down the index for the sixth consecutive year to 90th out of 147 territories.
“For a society where people cannot afford to have a baby or a decent place to live, the question for Hong Kong is not whether it can afford to change, but the question is whether it can afford not to change,” Yang said.


Hong Kong’s 5-year plan, policy continuity offer investors more stability, experts say

Hong Kong sets 5-year plan to double innovation spending, boost new industries

Hong Kong to offer ‘attractive’ merger deals for schools beyond those struggling

Hong Kong leader pledges building maintenance reforms after fatal Tai Po fire

Hong Kong society

Hong Kong is world’s most unequal society for wealth distribution, study finds

Hong Kong’s wealth disparities are no longer fuelled by differences in wages but by capital asset ownership, a researcher says. Photo: Dickson Lee

A woman collects cardboard in Wan Chai to sell to recyclers. Photo: Eugene Lee

Poverty line is limited marker, Hong Kong minister says, as aid focus expands to carers

A man collects cardboard in Mong Kok. After the current administration took office in 2022, it stopped using the poverty line. Photo: Dickson Lee

About 20 per cent of Hong Kong’s 491,200 elderly-only households comprise members all aged 80 or above, making them the most vulnerable group, according to a report by the Commission on Poverty. Photo: Nora Tam

Hong Kong changes how it defines poverty but experts express doubt about move

An elderly man in Wan Chai. After the current administration took office in 2022, it stopped using the poverty line and discontinued updates to an annual report. Photo: Nora Tam

A cleaner working in a back alley in Wan Chai. The report features more than 80 pages detailing existing policies and measures in healthcare, education and social welfare, as well as a chapter on “social transfer values”. Photo: Sam Tsang

News

Hong Kong

Society

Study analysed evolution of income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong between 1981 and 2021


Study analysed evolution of income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong between 1981 and 2021.


Hong Kong is world’s most unequal society for wealth distribution, study finds

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Study analysed evolution of income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong between 1981 and 2021

Study analysed evolution of income and wealth inequality in Hong Kong between 1981 and 2021