South Africa has the dubious honour of being one of the most unequal societies in the world. Income distribution is heavily skewed, with a concentration of wealth in a small number of hands. But is inequality worsening - or have policy changes adopted over the past decade improved wealth distribution? This question is highly political, as reflected by government's emotive reaction to last year's United Nations human development report, which suggested a worsening in inequality over the past decade. A new study by the University of SA's Bureau for Market Research suggests some improvement, but still a very skewed wealth distribution. It supports the findings of a number of studies done in recent years, which show a decline in inequality between racial groups, mainly because of increased social grant spending, and better job prospects for blacks, resulting in them earning a larger slice of the income pie. However, inequality within race groups has increased, indicating that the rich have become richer through upward mobility, while the poor continue to struggle to improve their circumstances. [ more ]