Romania has one of the largest gaps in the EU between high and low incomes among the population

Income gaps similar in size to Romania (4.9) are recorded in countries such as Bulgaria (the ratio between decile 10 and decile 1 is 5.6), Latvia (4.9), and Lithuania (4.9).

At the opposite end of the spectrum, the smallest gaps between the highest and lowest incomes among the population (below 3) are found in Slovakia, Slovenia, the Czech Republic, and Finland.

Between 2010 and 2015, income gaps in Romania widened, increasing from 5.2 to 6.5. After 2015, the trend was downward, with the lowest incomes growing faster than the highest, but our country still has one of the largest income gaps in the EU.

Measuring the gap between the incomes of the richest 10% and the poorest 10% of citizens is an indicator of social inequalities at the country level. Unlike indicators measuring the risk of poverty, which consider a percentage of average income to show what percentage of the population is below or close to the poverty line, income gaps between rich and poor show the degree of income distribution among the population and, therefore, how great the income inequalities are in a country.