16.5% in 1980 to 23.0% in 2020). From 1980 to 2020 the share of income going to the top quintile increased by

8.1 percentage points (from 44.1% in 1980 to 52.2% in 2013). Thus, the top 20% of householders (the fifth

quintile) received over half (51%) of all the income in the United States in 2020.

Lorenz Curve

We can present the data on income inequality in various ways. For example, you could draw a bar graph that

showed the share of income going to each fifth of the income distribution. Figure 15.8 presents an alternative

way of showing inequality data in a Lorenz curve. This curve shows the cumulative share of population on the

horizontal axis and the cumulative percentage of total income received on the vertical axis.

FIGURE 15.8 The Lorenz Curve A Lorenz curve graphs the cumulative shares of income received by everyone up to

a certain quintile. The income distribution in 1980 was closer to the perfect equality line than the income
{"upload_timestamp": "2026-02-07T15:37:44.339247", "source": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "creationdate": "2022-12-07T14:15:44-06:00", "creator": "PDFMiner", "total_pages": 597, "producer": "Prince 14.2 (www.princexml.com)", "title": "Principles of Microeconomics 3e", "moddate": "2022-12-07T14:23:05-06:00", "batch_upload": true, "file_type": ".pdf", "source_file": "downloads\\business\\economics\\Microeconomics3e.pdf", "uploaded_via": "batch_uploader", "file_name": "Microeconomics3e.pdf", "file_size_mb": 26.99, "file_hash": "830b81f41611ac67a490444dbb5d6aed292224606965b06965b914443c93331a"}