32.9
% of pre-tax national income, 2017
Low trust, 57 of 100 Only World Bank counts: WID republishes it, so there is nothing independent to check it against.
- WID
- World Bank
Recorded change in how a source reports; hover or focus the ring for details.
Show the data as a table
| Year | World Inequality Database, top 10% pre-tax national income share | World Bank, income share held by highest 10% (household surveys) |
|---|---|---|
| 1980 | 61.13 | – |
| 1981 | 61.13 | – |
| 1982 | 61.13 | – |
| 1983 | 61.13 | – |
| 1984 | 61.13 | – |
| 1985 | 61.13 | – |
| 1986 | 61.13 | 43.6 |
| 1987 | 61.53 | – |
| 1988 | 61.94 | – |
| 1989 | 62.34 | – |
| 1990 | 62.74 | – |
| 1991 | 63.14 | – |
| 1992 | 63.55 | – |
| 1993 | 63.95 | – |
| 1994 | 64.35 | 48.2 |
| 1995 | 63.21 | – |
| 1996 | 62.07 | – |
| 1997 | 60.92 | – |
| 1998 | 59.78 | – |
| 1999 | 58.63 | – |
| 2000 | 57.49 | – |
| 2001 | 56.34 | – |
| 2002 | 55.2 | 38.2 |
| 2003 | 54.82 | – |
| 2004 | 54.44 | – |
| 2005 | 54.06 | – |
| 2006 | 53.68 | – |
| 2007 | 53.3 | – |
| 2008 | 52.93 | – |
| 2009 | 52.55 | – |
| 2010 | 52.17 | – |
| 2011 | 51.79 | – |
| 2012 | 51.41 | – |
| 2013 | 51.03 | – |
| 2014 | 50.65 | – |
| 2015 | 50.27 | – |
| 2016 | 49.89 | – |
| 2017 | 49.51 | 32.9 |
| 2018 | 49.51 | – |
| 2019 | 49.51 | – |
| 2020 | 49.51 | – |
| 2021 | 49.51 | – |
| 2022 | 49.51 | – |
| 2023 | 49.51 | – |
| 2024 | 49.51 | – |
All countriesAll of Lesotho's figuresCompare
Lesotho among 216 countries
162 have a higher figure and 53 a lower one. Definitions differ between countries, and their years run from 2011 to 2024.
What this number counts
- Counts
- Share of national income received by the top 10% of adults, before taxes and transfers
- Where
- Lesotho
- When
- Latest year available: WID 2024, World Bank 2017; series from 1980 (one year, not an average)
Where the number comes from (2 sources)
| Source | Figure and year | Definition | Quality | Counts for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
World Inequality Database, top 10% pre-tax national income shareWorld Inequality Lab (World Inequality Database) · Model-based estimateRetrieved 2026-10-27 · Data (zip file) | 49.512024 | Share of pre-tax national income received by the top 10% of adults (age 20 and over), with income split equally between spouses (WID variable sptinc992j, percentile p90p100).Pre-tax national income is income before taxes and transfers but after pensions, scaled to national-accounts national income, so it includes income that households do not report in surveys, such as retained company profits. Raw file: WID_data_LS.csv and WID_metadata_LS.csv in the WID bulk download (wid_all_data.zip, dated 15 October 2026); only the sptincj992 p90p100 rows were kept, in raw/income-inequality-by-country/wid/. Values are WID shares times 100. WID data-quality grade for 2024: 1 (carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate). WID method note for this country: "Figures are obtained by correcting survey tabulations provided by the World Bank (PIP) to account for conceptual discrepancies and the underrepresentation of top incomes. Surveys are available for the following years: 1986, 1994, 2002, 2017. Income shares are interpolated linearly when surveys are available at the beginning and at the end of a given period. Inequality series are extrapolated backwards to 1990 and forwards to 2023 by keeping income shares constant when no data is available for these years." WID builds this series from World Bank (PIP) survey tabulations, corrected for concept and top incomes, so it is not independent of the World Bank line. Because WID derives it from the World Bank survey data in the World Bank line, it is shown but not counted as a separate source. | 3 of 5 checks
| Not counted |
World Bank, income share held by highest 10% (household surveys)World Bank · Official economic statisticsRetrieved 2026-10-27 | 32.92017 | Share of household consumption expenditure per person received by the top 10% of people, from the 2017 household survey (CMSHBS).Each person is given the household total divided by household size, and ranked by it. Raw file: SI.DST.10TH.10.json (World Bank WDI API, last updated 8 October 2026); welfare type, coverage and comparability matched by country, year and value in pip_all.csv (https://api.worldbank.org/pip/v1/pip?country=all&year=all&povline=3&fill_gaps=false&format=csv). | 4 of 5 checks
| 100% |
- World Bank100%
Shown but not counted: WID (republishes World Bank).
How the trust score was worked out
- Quality32 / 40
How well the sources are made
- Agreement15 / 30
Unknown with one source, so set to half
- Independence6 / 20
How many separate ways the number was measured
- Freshness4 / 10
How recent the newest data is
Who reports it, and since when
- Single source: nothing to check it against
- World Bank: no figure here after 2017, while others reach 2024
- WID, 1986: WID grades 1986 as one type of source (survey or tax data) (data-quality grade 3), after carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate the year before. source
- WID, 1987: WID grades 1987–1993 as linear interpolation between two estimates (data-quality grade 2), after one type of source (survey or tax data) the year before. source
- WID, 1994: WID grades 1994 as one type of source (survey or tax data) (data-quality grade 3), after linear interpolation between two estimates the year before. source
- WID, 1995: WID grades 1995–2001 as linear interpolation between two estimates (data-quality grade 2), after one type of source (survey or tax data) the year before. source
- WID, 2002: WID grades 2002 as one type of source (survey or tax data) (data-quality grade 3), after linear interpolation between two estimates the year before. source
- WID, 2003: WID grades 2003–2016 as linear interpolation between two estimates (data-quality grade 2), after one type of source (survey or tax data) the year before. source
- WID, 2017: WID grades 2017 as one type of source (survey or tax data) (data-quality grade 3), after linear interpolation between two estimates the year before. source
- WID, 2018: WID grades 2018–2024 as carried forward or backward from the nearest estimate (data-quality grade 1), after one type of source (survey or tax data) the year before. source
- World Bank, 1994: The World Bank marks the 1994 survey as not comparable with the 1986 survey (a new comparable spell starts). source
- World Bank, 2002: The World Bank marks the 2002 survey as not comparable with the 1994 survey (a new comparable spell starts). source
- World Bank, 2017: The World Bank marks the 2017 survey as not comparable with the 2002 survey (a new comparable spell starts). source
- World Bank: no figure here for 28 years between 1986 and 2017
figure no figure here, inside its range no later figure recorded change
Why the numbers differ
- Income concept: WID measures pre-tax national income, which adds income households do not receive in cash or do not report, such as retained company profits, so that the total matches national accounts. The World Bank uses income or consumption as reported in household surveys, and the OECD uses disposable income after taxes and transfers.
- Unit: WID ranks adults and splits income equally between spouses. The World Bank ranks people by household income or consumption per person. The OECD ranks people by household disposable income divided by the square root of household size.
- Data source: surveys miss part of the income at the top. WID adds tax records where it has them and otherwise corrects survey data with models or regional averages; its data-quality grade for each year says which.
- Measure: a Gini index summarises the whole distribution and the top decile's share describes one group, so the two can move differently. The Gini indexes are shown in their own sets for the featured countries.
- Consumption and income: for many countries in Africa and Asia the World Bank survey measures consumption, which is spread more evenly than income, so those shares are not comparable with income shares elsewhere.
- Not independent everywhere: for countries without tax data, such as Nigeria and South Africa, WID builds its series from World Bank survey tabulations, which each row's WID note states.
Common mistakes
- Reading WID figures for the latest year as observed: WID carries the last estimate forward for most countries and grades those years as imputed. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
- Comparing a pre-tax share with an after-tax one: taxes and transfers lower the measured inequality, so WID pre-tax shares and OECD disposable-income figures answer different questions. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
- Treating the World Bank series as yearly: values exist only for survey years, and the survey measure (income or consumption) can differ between countries and years. (source, retrieved 2026-10-27)
Download, cite and report an error
From the table How much of each country's income goes to the top 10%, and how has that changed since 1980? Updated 2026-10-27.
Download every value in this table (CSV)
Cite as: RealStats, “Top 10% income share in Lesotho”, updated 2026-10-27, with the original sources listed on the page.