The line chart below illustrates the percentage of earnings that was received by the top one per cent of the population in seven different countries from 1975 to 2015. Looking from an overall perspective, it is evident that wealth had an increased trend, particularly in the United States, Canada, Germany and the United Kingdom. Other nations also increased overall though they were hardly noticeable.
In the group with the greatest increases, the United States rose from 8 percent to 9 percent in the period from 1975 to 1985 before a significant jump to 13 percent in 1990. The figures for the United States continually fluctuated for several years and finished at approximately 18%. The rises for Germany, the United Kingdom, and Canada followed a similar trend with the beginning under 10% and all three countries ended at a decline of about 13% in 2015.
In the nations with lower rises, both France, Japan and Italy had a similar slump of about 2% to 7% in the first ten years, before the climb to nearly 8% in 1990. In 1990, France and Japan fell again to about 7% while Italy had a gradual upward. All three nations started increasing slightly to below 10% at the end of the period.