The CRI Index 2020

The CRI Index 2020

Fighting Inequality in the time of COVID-19:

Available documents

English report (4 MB)
English summary (954 KB)
English methodology (446 KB)
English statistical audit (1 MB)
French report (2 MB)
French summary (1,015 KB)
French methodology (551 KB)
Spanish report (2 MB)
Spanish summary (981 KB)
Spanish methodology (544 KB)
Arabic report (2 MB)
Arabic summary (1 MB)
Arabic methodology (604 KB)
Statistical audit

Overview

The 2022 Commitment to Reducing Inequality (CRI) Index is the first detailed analysis published looking at governments’ policies and actions to fight inequality during the first two years of the pandemic. This fourth edition of the CRI Index reviews the spending, tax and labour policies and actions of 161 governments during 2020–2022.

COVID-19 has increased inequality worldwide, as the poorest people were hit hardest by both the disease and its profound economic impacts. Yet the CRI 2022 Index shows clearly that most of the world’s governments failed to mitigate this dangerous rise in inequality. Despite the biggest global health emergency in a century, half of low-and lower-middle-income countries saw the share of health spending fall during the pandemic, half of the countries tracked by the CRI Index cut the share of social protection spending, 70% cut the share of education spending, while two-thirds of countries failed to increase their minimum wage in line with gross domestic product (GDP). Ninety-five percent of countries failed to increase taxation of the richest people and corporations. At the same time, a small group of governments from across the world bucked this trend, taking clear actions to combat inequality, putting the rest of the world to shame.