Global wealth distribution is extraordinarily uneven. Most people occupy the lower and middle tiers, while a remarkably small group controls a disproportionate share of the world’s wealth. Switching between population and wealth makes that imbalance visible without changing the people being compared.

Each row is a 10,000-part representation of the same global distribution, repeated eight times to create the visual field. In the population view, the proportions represent 8.1 billion people. In the wealth view, the same groups are redistributed according to their share of global wealth, revealing the global wealth distribution across the five tiers.

The 1% are defined by net worth, not income. Anyone holding assets above $1 million after liabilities qualifies. This is a different measure from the consumption data used for all other tiers and the two are not directly comparable. Wealth share figures come from the World Inequality Database. The 47.5% shown is a midpoint; credible estimates range from 43% to 52% depending on how offshore wealth is counted and which methodology is applied.