Editing Gini coefficient (section)

===Household vs individual===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; float: right; margin-left:1em;"
|+ Table B. Same income distributions, but different Gini Index
|-
! style=max-width:4em | Household number !! style=max-width:5em | Country  Annual Income ($) !! style=max-width:5em |Household combined number !! style=max-width:5em |Country A combined Annual Income ($)
|-
| 1 || 20,000 || rowspan="2"  style="text-align: center;" | 1 & 2 || rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | 50,000
|-
| 2 || 30,000
|-
| 3 || 40,000 || rowspan="2"  style="text-align: center;" | 3 & 4 || rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | 90,000
|-
| 4 || 50,000
|-
| 5 || 60,000 || rowspan="2"  style="text-align: center;" | 5 & 6 || rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | 130,000
|-
| 6 || 70,000
|-
| 7 || 80,000 || rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | 7 & 8 || rowspan="2" style="text-align: center;" | 170,000
|-
| 8 || 90,000
|-
| 9 || 120,000 || rowspan="2"  style="text-align: center;" | 9 & 10 || rowspan="2"  style="text-align: center;" | 270,000
|-
| 10 || 150,000
|-
| Total Income || $710,000 ||  || $710,000
|-
| Country's Gini || '''0.303''' || ||'''0.293'''
|}
The Gini coefficient measure gives different results when applied to individuals instead of households, for the same economy and same income distributions. If household data is used, the measured value of income Gini depends on how the household is defined. The comparison is not meaningful when different populations are not measured with consistent definitions. Furthermore, changes to the household income Gini can be driven by changes in household formation, such as increased divorce rates or [[extended family]] households splitting into [[Nuclear family|nuclear families]].

Deininger and [[Lyn Squire|Squire]] (1996) show that the income Gini coefficient based on individual income rather than household income is different. For example, for the United States, they found that the individual income-based Gini index was 0.35, while for France, 0.43. According to their individual-focused method, in the 108 countries they studied, South Africa had the world's highest Gini coefficient at 0.62, Malaysia had Asia's highest Gini coefficient at 0.5, Brazil the highest at 0.57 in Latin America and the Caribbean region, and Turkey the highest at 0.5 in OECD countries.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Deininger |first1=K. |last2=Squire |first2=L. |title=A New Data Set Measuring Income Inequality |journal=The World Bank Economic Review |date=September 1996 |volume=10 |issue=3 |pages=565–591 |doi=10.1093/wber/10.3.565 }}</ref>

Billionaire [[Thomas Kwok]] claimed the income Gini coefficient for Hong Kong has been high (0.434 in 2010<ref name=undp2010a />), in part because of structural changes in its population. Over recent decades, Hong Kong has witnessed increasing numbers of small households, elderly households, and elderly living alone. The combined income is now split into more households. Many older people live separately from their children in Hong Kong. These social changes have caused substantial changes in household income distribution. The income Gini coefficient, claims Kwok, does not discern these structural changes in its society.<ref name=Kwok10 /> Household money income distribution for the United States, summarized in Table C of this section, confirms that this issue is not limited to just Hong Kong. According to the US Census Bureau, between 1979 and 2010, the population of the United States experienced structural changes in overall households; the income for all income brackets increased in inflation-adjusted terms, household income distributions shifted into higher income brackets over time, while the income Gini coefficient increased.<ref name=uscb2011 /><ref name=cbo.p.10>[http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=12485 Congressional Budget Office: Trends in the Distribution of Household Income Between 1979 and 2007]. October 2011. see pp. i–x, with definitions on ii–iii</ref>

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center; float: left; margin-right:1em;"
|+ Table C. Household money income distributions and Gini Index, US<ref name=uscb2011>{{cite web|title=Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage in the United States: 2010 (see Table A-2)|date=September 2011|publisher=Census Bureau, Dept of Commerce, United States|url=https://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110923022827/http://www.census.gov/prod/2011pubs/p60-239.pdf |archive-date=2011-09-23 |url-status=live}}</ref>
|-
! style=max-width:6em | Income bracket (in 2010 adjusted dollars)!! style=max-width:4em | % of Population 1979 !! style=max-width:4em | % of Population 2010
|-
| Under $15,000 || 14.6% || 13.7%
|-
| $15,000 – $24,999 || 11.9% || 12.0%
|-
| $25,000 – $34,999 || 12.1% || 10.9%
|-
| $35,000 – $49,999 || 15.4% || 13.9%
|-
| $50,000 – $74,999 || 22.1% || 17.7%
|-
| $75,000 – $99,999 || 12.4% || 11.4%
|-
| $100,000 – $149,999 || 8.3% || 12.1%
|-
| $150,000 – $199,999 || 2.0% || 4.5%
|-
| $200,000 and over || 1.2% || 3.9%
|-
| Total Households || 80,776,000 || 118,682,000
|-
| United States' Gini on pre-tax basis || '''0.404''' || '''0.469'''
|}