The article estimates the evolution of household income inequality in the EU-15, considered as if it were a single country, during the first sixty years of the European integration process. The inequality measures are based on the method proposed by Sala-i-Martin (2006), combining data on GDP, population and income shares.
Income inequality among EU-15 citizens decreased remarkably from 1957 to 2017; the Gini coefficient dropped by nearly 30 per cent. The process was very rapid until the mid-1980s. It then slowed gradually, to the point that inequality started rising at the beginning of the 2000s. The six founding countries have led the convergence process, with a central role played by France and Germany.
