We're richer than we were 50 years ago
but the gap between rich and poor is much larger
imagine a scale that goes from £0 to £60,000 a year
and now think about the number of people
at each level of income
back in 1961
four out of five people had a household income
that was equivalent in today's terms
to between four and a half
and fifteen and a half thousand pounds per year
- for a couple without children
in the 1960s and 1970s we generally saw incomes grow
and you can see that here from this mass of people
moving to the right
which shows more people with higher incomes
but the spread of incomes remained pretty similar
throughout this period
showing little change income inequality
we get to the 1980s and see rapid income growth
but also a sudden rise in inequality
look at how quickly incomes become more spread out
incomes continue to grow
through the 1990s and 2000s
up until the 2008 recession
and meanwhile the spread of incomes
didn't change much more
so we're much better off than we used to be
by 2015, four out of five people
had an income equivalent to between
twelve and fifty thousand pounds a year
for a childless couple
but incomes are also more unequal than they were 50 years ago
